Director Madhur Bhandarkar, who is in a state of 'shock' after his ambitious project 'Heroine' came to a halt following actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's pregnancy, today broke his silence and said the truth about her being in the family way was 'hidden' from the filmmakers.

'Heroine' had Aishwarya playing the central character. But after June 21, when father-in-law Amitabh Bachchan broke the news of his daughter-in-law being pregnant through Twitter, the fate of the project seems to be hanging in balance.

"Today, I am sitting alone in my office after the plugs being pulled off from my film Heroine. My conscience stands clear as I have been honest to my craft irrespective of the repercussions. No which way would I have trampled my dream project on which I have given my sweat and blood for almost 1-1/2 years. This was going to be my most ambitious project of my career," Bhandarkar wrote on his blog.

"The entire event would not have taken place if on the onset the actress would have informed the state of her health and impending maternity. The truth was hidden from us. We learnt about the entire thing from news channels like the rest of the world that the said actress was four-months pregnant and she was due in November," Bhandarkar said.

Aishwarya was to play the character of that of a once successful film actress Mahi Khanna, whose career is on the decline. The film also starred Arjun Rampal, Arunoday Singh, Shahana Goswami and Amrita Raichand.

"Film-making in Mumbai film industry is not a mere business but one big fraternity who functions on total faith and trust.

The film was announced in Cannes on May 13 while we commenced shooting on June 7. There was a gap of 24 days even if we had known the truth behind the maternal state of the actress things could have been reworked keeping the state of matters in mind accordingly and this crisis could have been averted," the national award winning director said.

"The entire crisis would have taken a humungous shape had the truth not being unveiled when it was. With 65 days of shooting remaining. It would make the concerned actress 6-7 months pregnant. Cinema is a visual medium and keeping in mind the physical state of the actress the total interpretation of the character of a diva and the story would land up in major jeopardy post 65 days of her pregnancy," Bhandarkar added.

On June 28, Producers UTV Motion Pictures had said the shooting of Madhur Bhandarkar's 'Heroine' has been put on hold indefinitely due to lead star Aishwarya's pregnancy.

"The lead actress was required to smoke on screen. but even if she chose not to smoke for the camera; there are other actors smoking in the same frame entailing to passive smoking which would prove detrimental to a pregnant woman's health," the director added.