Casting coup or casting who?

Everyone who’s a ‘star’ in India has a wish list of even bigger stars they want to work with. It is when they profess to have ‘bagged’ the project with the object of their dreams that the quest for truth begins...

Breaking news: ��Brangelina to star in Bollywood project.��
Surprised? Don��t be. After all, we��ve got Slyvester Stallone, Brandon Routh and Denise Richards in one of our films. But the way directors, producers, actors and starlets are announcing casting coups (most of which don��t go beyond wishful thinking),
Brangelina��s Bollywood cameo might just be next.
Some time ago, Celina Jaitly was upbeat about playing an Iranian princess in an international movie �� Quest of Sheherzade �� opposite Sean Connery and Orlando Bloom. But a few weeks after the ��news�� came out, Nancy Seltzer, Connery��s representative, issued a curt denial �� Sean has not even heard of the project.��

Now that would be a common complaint in the entertainment industry today. Instances abound where the only person aware of the deal is the one who claims to be pulling it off. Sherlyn Chopra, for one, was the only person privy to the information that she had bagged a Yash Raj film opposite Shahid Kapur. Even Yash Raj was unaware of it. Because, the last they heard, the film had Shahid opposite Rani Mukerji, with Sherlyn making a brief appearance. An angry Yash Raj spokesperson had clarified, ��The report of Shahid acting opposite Sherlyn is false. Sherlyn is doing it just to gain mileage.��

And then, if we had gone by filmmaker Pan Nalin��s version, we��d have already started addressing Aamir Khan as Toba Tek Singh. It was only when Aamir said the announcement was news to him too, that it appeared Nalin had spoken too soon, unless Aamir still had a Ghajini hangover.
But one person who wouldn��t even have that excuse, is Bengali actor-director Arjun Chakraborty. He claimed to have sent scripts to John Abraham and Bipasha Basu, and said that if that hot jodi decided to give it a miss, he had Shahid Kapur-Priyanka Chopra or Farhan Akhtar-Deepika Padukone lined up as his backup. Aila!
But then, if our desi guys go about flaunting their ��phoren connections��, one gori chhori was proud of being at the right place at the right time with the right people, and she made sure the world knew about it. Claudia Ciesla had no problems posing for a picture with Abhishek Bachchan at Cannes, but didn��t like his wry sense of humour in (not) acknowledging her.
We��d also heard of Hrithik Roshan doing Rambo 4, only to have Papa Roshan play wet blanket, confirming that the movie was never offered to him. Speaking of offers, even Saif has claimed that Shahid��s role in Kaminey had first come to him. Now, if only Vishal Bhardwaj would confirm that!

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