Apoorva lakhia is back in bussiness with balaji

After the failure of Mission Istaanbul, buzz was that director Apoorva Lakhia was fading out of Bollywood. Says a catty director, "After Mission Istaanbul, he has been dumped by Popcorn Entertainment and Balaji Films.

Much probing and searching later Lakhia is indeed traced to his family in New York. When asked why he had left, Apu says, "I heard the film industry was in a total mess and not much was happening. So I was chilling in the US. Now I'm back in Mumbai. As for my friends dumping me Balaji Telefilms has given me a nice fat signing amount. If they don't want to work with me, no problem!"

Moreover, none of his friends like Sanjay Dutt, Abhishek Bachchan and Zayed Khan want to work with him."Says a source, "In fact, Lakhia had gone to Bangkok to sign Zayed for his next film. But after Zayed turned him down, Lakhia just left. He feels all his friends have turned their backs on him."

In fact, Apoorva is all set to start a film to be co-produced by HMV-Sa Re Ga Ma and Sohail Maklai. "It's a suspense thriller that I start in March 2009. I'm working on the script right now. People may love me or hate me.

I'll continue to make the films I believe in, no matter what. And for those who are wishing me to go away, let me inform them I'm not going anywhere in a hurry. I've to go home every year since New York is where I live." Lakhia needs to spend a part of each year in NY for visa purposes.