Sanjay Leela Bhansali the director or maestro movies has drawn near the Bachchans – Amitabh, Abhishek and Aishwarya for his subsequently Bajirao Mastani. He had originally planned the historical to be his next release post Hum Dil Chuke Sanam (1999) but the project has been delayed for lack of an apt lead pair. After going through varied options he has zeroed in on the newly married star couple.
“Aishwarya was always Bhansali’s first choice for the courtesan’s role and he had dreamt of making the film with Salman opposite her playing the 18th century Peshwa king and Rani Mukheree his wife, Kashibai,” a source close to Bhansali informs, “Both Salman - Ash were a pair off screen then. But following their break up, the bearded director decided to maintain close pal Salman and started looking around for Mastani’s part. Name of top model, Shivani Kapoor too was discussed then. He then settled upon on Kareena Kapoor and even gave interviews about his choice claiming she possessed the pathos of Meena Kumari and the fire of Nargis and that she had a completely different aura of attitude, personality, beauty and femininity. But after everything was confirmed he decided to postpone the project and make Devdas with Shah Rukh Khan instead. Post Devdas, when everyone was expecting the pending project to take off, Bhansali surprised everyone again by announcing his songless Black with Big B and Rani Mukherjee, keeping his historical aside, yet again.” the source says.