Rani most gifted actor around

Clearly, Rani Mukherjee is becoming offbeat cinema’s favourite girl. Now, Dev D director Anurag Kashyap is planning to rope in the No One Killed Jessica (NOKJ) actor for a film opposite south Indian star Prithviraj Sukumaran. Kashyap recently signed Prithviraj, who is waiting for his much-awaited Malayalam flick Urumi to hit screens.

Talent scouting
“I plan to approach Rani for the role once I’m back in Mumbai,” says Kashyap, who has been shooting Gangs of Wasseypur in Benaras for the past few months. “I was blown away by her performance in NOKJ.”

Sources inform that Anurag was impressed with Rani’s performance in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Black. “Anurag has always felt that Rani is one of the most gifted actors around. But he didn’t have an appropriate role for her. Now, he feels Rani is perfect for his next,” says a source.

Not long ago, Rani made headlines for her powerful outing in Raj Kumar Gupta’s NOKJ. Sources say he plans to cast Rani in his dark comedy thriller, Ghanchakkar.

“Right now, I’m wrapping up the last draft of my script. Once I am through, I will think about casting,” says Gupta. The film will hit the floors by June. And unlike NOKJ, Ghanchakkar requires only one female protagonist.

Rani, on her part, has already clarified that she is looking for challenging roles. “I want to come out with two-three films every year, but I’ve not been really lucky in getting the roles that I really want,” she said around the release of NOKJ.

Meanwhile, the buzz in south film circles suggests that Kashyap’s film could be a remake of M Sasikumar’s Tamil hit Subramaniapuram since he’s “very impressed” with the film. In fact, Kashyap was recently in Chennai for the audio launch of Sasikumar’s second Tamil film, Easan.