MUMBAI: Tainted in the recent match-fixing controversy that came to light recently, Pakistani fast bowler Mohammed Asif who was to make his debut in a Malayalam film, Mazhavillin Attamvare, has been shown the door.

The film‘s director Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri has said that he just can‘t go ahead with the project with Asif on board. ‘He has to be changed because now I do not want to go ahead with him,‘ the debutant director said.

The film has its lead character, a Pakistani cricketer arriving as a bowling coach at a cricket academy in Kerala, searching for his roots.

‘I will try some other Pakistani cricketer and, if not, I will seek a Pakistani film actor to do the central role in my film, for which shooting starts in the second week of October,‘ Namboothiri added.

Apart from directing the film, he has also penned its story, script, dialogues and songs.