Chennai, Dec 23 (IANS): Director AMR Ramesh says actress Manisha Koirala, who makes her acting comeback in his upcoming Tamil-Kannada bilingual "Oru Meliya Kodu", postponed her Hindi film with Rajkumar Santoshi to work in this project.

Manisha is a survivor of ovarian cancer.

"She was supposed to make her comeback with a film with Rajkumar Santoshi. However, when she heard the script of my film, she agreed to do it first. She's now working in Santoshi's film," Ramesh told IANS.

Indebted to her for the gesture, he said that he thoroughly enjoyed working with the 45-year old.

The film, a murder mystery, also features Shaam and Arjun Sarja in important roles.

"The film is about a high profile murder. A wife is killed and her husband becomes the prime suspect. Manisha plays the victim, while Shaam plays her husband. Arjun plays the investigative officer," he said.

Rubbishing claims that the film is inspired from the real life murder of businesswoman Sunananda Pushkar, Ramesh said: "I had written this script long back. It's just a coincidence that the stories are similar but my film is not based on that case".

The film, which has music by Ilayaraja, will hit the screens on January 22, 2016.