It is finally confirmed that Alia Bhatt will be playing Gangubai, a rustic Maharashtrian character, in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s next directorial.
Some may find this hard to imagine considering how urbane Alia is, but Bhansali has already imagined her looks and personality based on various Maharashtrian women whom he admires.
Gangubai is one of Bhansali’s dream projects that he has nurtured for many years. He even planned the film with Priyanka Chopra a few years ago, but God and Nick Jonas had other plans.
The decision to cast Alia in the role was taken even before Bhansali’s other project Inshallah with Alia and Salman Khan fell through. “Bhansali had made up his mind to cast Alia as Gangubai after doing workshops with her for Inshallah. Her dedication, passion, enthusiasm, and the will to excel simply bowled him over. Sanjay knew Alia was his Gangubai. What he didn’t know was that he would end up doing Gangubai in lieu of Inshallah.”
The speculation regarding an Alia-SLB collaboration can finally be put to rest.
Meanwhile... The Padukone-Ranveer meet SLB
Deepika Padukone has kept the wags talking. Her recent meeting with Sanjay Leela Bhansali at his workplace ostensibly raised eyebrows, as they are not working in any project at the moment.
But what made wags active is the fact that Ranveer Singh also made a visit to Bhansali on Wednesday. “Deepika and Ranveer coming to meet him separately is an interesting development. What we would like to know if Ranveer will reunite with Alia in another story of an underdog this time, with Alia in the lead,” says an industry source.
