Abhay Deol, who turned 36 today, celebrated his birthday by signing a new movie.

Abhay Deol has now replaced Abhishek Bachchan in the lead role of Prakash Jha’s upcoming movie.

“This film happened almost overnight. I have immense respect for Prakash Jha's work and it's a great script. I am extremely happy that I could join the project,” said a visibly elated Abhay Deol.

The movie comes at a perfected time for Abhay Deol as his Hollywood project with Bipasha Basu and his other movie ‘Dibakar Bannerjee’ have been shelved indefinitely.

“After ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’, the bar has been raised. I have to follow it up with an equally good film. I'm confident Prakashji's film will turn out great,” he said.

Abhay, who celebrates his birthday today, said that he will keep it quiet this year.

“Since I turned 21, I'm still figuring out what to do with life (laughs). I will probably go out for a quiet dinner with Preeti (his girlfriend) and my friends. Nothing noisy!” he said.

Meanwhile, Prakash Jha denied the rumors that Abhishek was ever a part of the project.

“We have never officially announced that Abhishek was part of the film. These were all false reports that were making the rounds. At the moment Abhay, Arjun (Rampal) and Manoj (Bajpai) are part of the film. And I think Abhay is perfect for the role,” he said.

Interestingly, ever since the movie was announced it was rumored that Prakash Jha would bring the father-son Jodi of Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan together in the movie.