If sources close to both, Aamir Khan and Siddharth Roy Kapur, are to be believed then the reason why the actor is not doing the filmmaker’s biopic Salute is because he has a mega production plan of his own for 2018. And this Aamir wants to start as soon as he wraps up his schedule of Thugs of Hindostan which he is shooting with Amitabh Bachchan for Yash Raj Films. That is the only film Aamir has on hand after his Secret Superstar which released in September.

Aamir was originally supposed to star in and co-produce Salute with Siddharth’s newly launched banner RK Films. The biopic is on cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma who was on an Intercosmos mission in April 1984 and became the first Indian to go into space about the spacecraft Soyuz T-11. The biopic was to be called Saare Jahaan Se Accha – which was Rakesh Sharma’s reply to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi when she asked him how India looked from outer space. But the title got changed to Salute came on board.

So, what’s the real reason why Aamir regretfully backed out of Salute? PeepingMoon.com has learned that the actor has what is being described as a subject close to his heart: it’s a sci-fi project that Aamir intends to produce, direct and act in. He wants to make about five sequels to it over ten years. It will be done on the scale of Hollywood’s epic space films series Star Wars which, after the original in 1977, was followed by The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Return of The Jedi (1983), Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and Rogue One (2016).

Aamir reportedly has something similar in mind. And if he was planning to embark on his own long-time space odyssey, it made no sense to temporarily step into space with Siddharth’s Salute. So Aamir backed out.