Imtiaz Ali’s first choice for ‘Rockstar’ was Deepika Padukone

Imtiaz Ali, the popular director of many hits like ‘Jab We Met’��(2007)��and ‘Rockstar’ (2011) ��has always managed to get the perfect coupling in all his films. While his film ‘Rockstar’ starred Ranbir Kapoor and Nargis Fakhri, Ali had originally wanted to cast Padukone as the heroine.

According to Pinkvilla, Ali revealed that he hadn’t cast Padukone because she had also been in a similar character in another one of his hits, ‘Love Aaj Kal’ (2009). He said, “I always wanted to cast Deepika in Rockstar. The first time I had met her many years back, I wanted to cast Deepika in Rockstar. But then I did Love Aaj Kal with her. Now, when Rockstar was finally getting made, I realized there were many scenes which were similar for the girls’ characters in the two movies. That whole conflict of getting married but realizing that she is somewhere else in her mind. And there were other scenes also in the second half of Love Aaj Kal which had the same conflict that Heer (Nargis Fakhri) had in Rockstar. So I thought if I cast Deepika again, it would look the same. And the bluff will be called. I even explained it to her. She knows.”

Ali is working with Padukone in his next, ‘Tamasha’, which also coincidentally stars Ranbir Kapoor, and will hit screens on 25th November.