Kareena Kapoor turns down offer to star opposite Emraan Hashmi
Imran Hashmi hit the headlines some time ago when Karan Johar and Ekta Kapoor confirmed casting the actor as hero of their first joint production venture. Bollywood widely saw the move as Emraan officially moving into the A-list, considering KJo particularly works only with the biggest names and also because the Jannat 2 star has been on a hit spree lately.
Now comes the spanner in Emraan's works. The buzz doing the rounds is that Kareena Kapoor, whom Johar wanted as the heroine in the film, has turned down the offer.
Officially Kareena has said her ongoing shoot of Madhur Bhandarkar's Heroine has taken a toll on her health. She would need time before taking up a new project and would thus not be able to do the Johar-Ekta film. She is also said to have indicated that she will be busy with the promotion of Talaash, co-starring Aamir Khan, around the time the Emraan film goes on floors.
The rumour doing the rounds among industry insiders, however, suggests something else. "Kareena reportedly felt she wouldn't be too comfortable working with Emraan, given his image. Although he has been on a golden run lately, his popularity as Bollywood's Serial Kisser and the bad boy hero of small-budget films could have made Kareena refuse the film," a source said.
Kareena's refusal to do Johar's film has surprised many because she has emerged as a talismanic heroine for the filmmaker in recent times. In fact, Ekta is said to have been keen to cast Katrina Kaif as the lead actress of the film, but Johar reportedly had insisted on casting Kareena.
However, this is not the first time that Kareena has refused a Karan Johar film. The filmmaker was reportedly quite upset when Kareena turned down Johar's hit production, Kal Ho Naa Ho. The buzz that did the rounds then had suggested that she demanded a price that was beyond what Johar was willing to shell out.
Incidentally, this is not the first time that a top actress has turned down a role opposite Emraan. Bipasha Basu had rejected an offer opposite the actor in the past. However, given Emraan's spate of recent hits, Bipasha signed Raaz 3D opposite the actor recently.
