The latest news is that work on the film has been halted after the actress turned down a dinner invitation from Madhya Pradesh minister Vijay Shah.

Earlier, shooting of the film couldn’t begin for a long while due to the nationwide lockdown. But now that the ‘unlock’ process is underway, the makers quickly took it on the floors in MP. However, according to an ANI report, the vehicles of the film’s production team were recently stopped from entering a forest for shooting. The reason being speculated is that this was done on the minister’s instructions.

However, minister Shah has denied the news reports and said that the shoot wasn’t cancelled. “I was there (Balaghat) on request from those who took permission for the shoot and requested me for lunch or dinner. I said not possible now, I will meet them when I go to Maharashtra. Lunch or dinner was cancelled, the shoot was not,” Shah clarified to the news agency.

Neither Vidya Balan nor the makers have issued any statement about the reported developments.It appears that it was the Sherni team which leaked the story to the press.

The film was recently in the news because actor Vijay Raaz was arrested after a female crew member accused him of molestation. He was released on bail the same day. The girl later retracted the charge, but Vijay will not be resuming work on the film.

Directed by Amit Masurkar, Sherni revolves around the man-animal conflict and features Vidya Balan as a forest officer. It is based on the controversial killing of a tigress named Avni last year in November. As per reports, the tigress was shot on the instructions of Forest officials as she had killed 13 people in Maharashtra.