Reportedly Salman Khan’s co-star in brother Sohail Khan’s film Sher Khan, which is yet to hit floors, will not be any other Bollywood hunk but Bengal Tiger. It has been more than a year that Sohail Khan had announced Sher Khan but the shooting of the film was being postponed for every other reason. But the actual reason behind the long delay is that Sohail wants the exact tiger for Sher Khan as in the Ang Lee’s ‘Life of Pi’.

Sources say that when Salman saw the footage of LOP, he was mighty impressed with the Bengal tiger with whom the lead character makes his journey across the rough seas. Our source adds, “Salman was very impressed with the character of the tiger, Richard Parker. He called Sohail and showed him the footage repeatedly and, apparently, even asked him whether the tiger that Sohail had in mind would resemble the Bengal tiger in LOP. Sohail promised his brother that till he got such an impressive tiger, real or animated, he would not launch Sher Khan.”

Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age. He survives 227 days after a shipwreck while stranded on a boat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger. The upcoming film adaptation is directed by Ang Lee based on an adapted screenplay by David Magee. Suraj Sharma, who has no previous acting experience, will play Pi. Life of Pi is scheduled to be released on 21 November 2012.