Bollywood filmmaker Sanjay Gupta said he was on the brink of cracking a deal with Indian diplomat-author Vikas Swarup to make a film on his book Q & A. Gupta, however, missed the deal as the rights of the book were already sold to British-Irish filmmaker Danny Boyle, who made the Oscar-nominated rags-to-riches drama Slumdog Millionaire on the same.

"I missed the film by a hair's breadth. I had read the book in 2005 and wanted to make a film on it and I wanted Homi Adjania to direct it,” he said in a release here.

“We had met Vikas Swarup. But, unfortunately the rights of the film were already sold to Danny Boyle," he added.

The Kaante director also revealed that he could not make the film because "we did not have the kind of support Fox Searchlight gave to Danny Boyle".

Gupta, however, admitted that the film would not have got the kind of international recognition it received if he had made the film.