As Super star recuperates in Singapore, reports have emerged that Sonakshi Sinha — and not Deepika Padukone — was the first choice for Director KS Ravikumar’s big-budget directorial venture. Speaking to a Newspaper, Ravikumar said he isn’t amused with such talks. “Where do they come from? We didn’t even think of Sonakshi or had a chat with her about Rana,” says Ravikumar.
Sources close to Deepika too are surprised with the emergence of such reports. They say Deepika was offered Rana as well as Kamal Hassan’s Vishwaroopam at the same time. But she was in a dilemma about her availability for both projects, as both films were huge and required her to do a lot of action. Ask Deepika about Vishwaroopam and she answers diplomatically: “I don’t like talking about projects I haven’t signed on. Also there’s no point discussing those films I could not do for various reasons since it would be disrespectful (to the makers).”
Coming back to Rana, Ravikumar adds that Rajinikanth was keen on Deepika joining him the film. “We, including Rajni sir, are happy that Deepika is doing the film,” he says. “She is playing the lead. Other female actors will only have guest appearances.” In fact, Rajni waited for about a month for Deepika’s team to work out her dates to his. He generally prefers to shoot at one go, but decided to work over a period of six months to align his dates with hers. “I am really honoured that Rajni sir reworked his dates for me and I got a chance to be a part of such a huge project,” says Deepika.
Meanwhile sources told us that Rajinikanth telephoned filmmaker Selvaraghavan, who is the elder brother of his son-in-law Dhanush, from Singapore and wished him a happy married life. "Rajini expressed his inability to attend the marriage as he is on rest on the advice of doctors. He spoke to both Selva and his wife Geetanjali and conveyed his heartfelt wishes to them."
