The sequel to Akshay Kumar’s 2007 hit, Namastey London, was meant to be called Namastey England. However, filmmaker Vipul Amrutlal Shah has had to change the title of the film starring Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra. The romcom will now be called Namastey Canada, and will be shot in the North American country instead of the UK.

A source says that the original plan was to have Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha in the lead, but it didn’t work out. “The project took some time to get finalised and Akshay got busy with other projects, including Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, Padman, 2.0 and Gold. So, Vipul signed Parineeti and Arjun for the film. Both, Akshay and Vipul own the Intellectual Property (IP) rights to the Namastey series, and when
the filmmaker approached him for the rights, the actor refused to part with the titles Namastey London 2 or Namastey England. He told Vipul that he may want to produce and act in Namastey England later. So, the filmmaker had no choice but to change the title to
Namastey Canada,” says the insider.

When contacted, Shah told mid-day, “Unfortunately, I can’t talk about it right now. You will have to bear with me for a couple of days till a few things get sorted out. I will make an announcement soon.”