The makers of Bluff Master had tied up with Salil Chaturvedi's apparel brand, Provogue, for in-film advertising, but the deal has fallen through.

The film's actors would have been seen sporting Provogue's Autumn Winter Collection in the video, but on the day of the shooting, the deal fell through, and Provogue, which would have shelled out more than Rs 1 crore for the video, pulled out.

The video of the song, Tu mila mein mila, composed by Vishal-Shekhar, features Abhishek Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, and Priyanka Chopra (opposite Abhishek), and was shot at Film City on November 16 and 17.

Confirms Salil Chaturvedi, "Yes, we were to tie up with Bluff Master, but that contract didn't work out, for some reason. I don't really want to get into details of what went wrong."

Sippy opted out

Says producer Ramesh Sippy, "Yes, it's a fact that we had this agreement for Bluff Master, where Provogue would be a part of an advertising deal and get a certain visibility. But the actual deal happened at the last minute, just a day before the shoot, and when we had to shoot the video on the sets, we realised that it was too much in-your-face advertising."

"There are some people who are fine with it, but we didn't want to do that. We have never gone in for that kind of stuff (even our earlier film, Kuch Naa Kaho, didn't have it), so we had to have a serious rethink whether we wanted subtle or aggressive promoting. If we didn't aggressively promote Provogue, they wouldn't get full value and that would be unfair to them."

"It was my decision to opt out of the agreement. Rohan asked me and I said it wouldn't be fair of us to go through. Either way, one of us would have to take the rap, so it was better to opt out."

Abhishek not keen

It was rumoured that Abhishek refused to wear outfits from the Provogue brand. "It's not true," clarifies Ramesh Sippy. "It's true that he was not enthused by it, but he told me very clearly, 'If it gives you value, I will do it.' But when Rohan and I discussed it, we thought it wouldn't be fair to go ahead with it."

No time to prepare

Ramesh Sippy doesn't blame anyone for the deal falling through. "If it had worked out a month before, we would have enough time to consider how to bring it in and give them full value."

"But the time factor was very short. We can't prepare on a set overnight. We might have had Provogue written in the background, part of the decor or done things subtly, without interfering with our creative aspect."

So it was an amicable parting? "I don't know. Provogue might have felt bad, but at least we didn't take them for a ride. They came at the last minute, but these things happen," adds Sippy.