It wasn't too long ago when Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and his crew made a hush-hush trip to the Capital to film the morning festivities on Eid at Chandni Chowk, as a part of his forthcoming film, Dilli 6. The film-maker, who spent a large part of his growing years in Chandni Chowk, will not be going back to this oldest and one of the busiest market areas of central-north Delhi to shoot the rest of the film featuring Abhishek Bachchan and Sonam Kapoor.

From what we hear, Mehra has been unable to get the requisite permissions from the local authorities. Also, crowd management was a concern with the producer UTV Motion Pictures, and that's when Mehra had to start scouting for locations afresh. Says our source, "We have to make do with this village in Sambhar, as filming in Chandni Chowk would have been a Herculean task. We had managed to shoot there smoothly during Eid because those scenes didn't require the lead pair. Once you get your actors on a real location it becomes extremely difficult to control the crowd."

Art directors and set designers on the film travelled the length and breadth of the country to pin down a location that could be passed off as Old Delhi. After nearly a month, Mehra has now settled for a quaint village at Sambhar in Rajasthan, which resembles Old Delhi. The crew is presently setting up make-shift food and fabric stores like the ones at Chandni Chowk.

Siddharth Roy Kapur, chief operating officer, UTV Motion Pictures, says, "Yes, we are recreating Old Delhi in a village in the interiors of Rajasthan, as we couldn't have shot the entire film in Chandni Chowk." Previously, Chandni Chowk featured in Karan Johar's Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. The leading ladies Kajol and Kareena lived in a populous neighbourhood in Chandni Chowk.