 In August 2000 a Screen Daily piece mentioned that Shah was in the talent scouting phase for his "Taj Mahal", a film expected to enter production in 2001.Eight years later, the project was announced as a US$25-million epic historical romance, now renamed "Taj".Shah reportedly sold the script to "Hollywood" for Rs 2 Crore (approximately US$345,000 in 2019, when accounting inflation) and said there were "feelers" from Ridley Scott, Michael Rymer, Silvio Sardi, and Ramoji Rao.