Filmmaker R Balki, who is known for his movie ‘Paa’, said that he was envious of his wife Gauri Shinde for working with Sridevi in her debut movie itself.

Veteran actress Sridevi is making a comeback into films with Gauri Shinde’s directorial debut ‘English Vinglish’, which is a fun filled story which concentrates on impact of not knowing English language in everyday life.

“I envy Gauri... like I wanted to work with Sridevi first but she did. And then I wished I could have thought of this idea, but she did. I am actually jealous of her... the film made me feel jealous. Both of the things I did not do, so I just had to sit and watch,” said R Balki to PTI.

Given the popularity of Sridevi down south the movie is not just being made in Hindi but also in Telugu and Tamil simultaneously.

“I think Sridevi is just perfect for this film. There are some portions that we have shot in Tamil and Telugu. The portion of Amitji has been shot by Ajith Kumar (South actor). So it is semi-dubbed, semi-shot," said the filmmaker.

We all know that Balki, who has worked with Amitabh Bachchan in his critically acclaimed movies ‘Cheeni Kum’ and ‘Paa’, considers Big B his lucky mascot. So, when we learnt that Amitabh Bachchan would be featuring in a cameo in ‘English Vinglish’ it dint surprise many.

But Balki revealed that it was In fact his wife’s idea to have Amitabh Bachchan in the movie.

“You need a character like that of Amitji in the film. It is not that I decided about Amitabh Bachchan. It was Gauri who thought she needed someone like him for a cameo. I asked him and he agreed to do it. It is a funny kind of a cameo,” the filmmaker concluded.

The movie ‘English Vinglish’ was earlier scheduled to release on September 21 but the release date has been pushed back to October 5 to avoid clash with Kareena Kapoor’s ‘Heroine’ that will release on September 21.