Unmasked: Ranaut's original avatar

Fresh start: Kangana Ranaut and Emraan Hashmi in a still from Gangster

Gangster girl Kangana Ranaut is not Anurag Basu's discovery, though he painted the town red claiming that he was the first to spot her (at J W Marriot).

Much before Gangster happened, Pahlaj Nihalani had signed Kangana to play the lead role in I Love You Boss, which was to be directed by Deepak Shivdasani.

In fact, Nihalani had placed a full page advertisement in this very paper (dated January 8, 2005) where Kangana posed nude wearing just a black robe leaving little to the imagination (see the ad alongside).

Chickened out

Nihalani told HiTLIST that Kangana chickened out of his film because he finalised Shatrughan Sinha to play the boss.

"Kangana came up to me and said that she was not too keen on starting her career with a film opposite Sinha. I was also going to cast a young hero in the film, but she said that she didn't want to do it. I tried my best to make her understand but she did not relent. I couldn't force her," he said.

Nihalani said that he wanted Amitabh Bachchan to play the role of the boss. "Big B was my first choice, but he said that he was doing a similar character in some other film. I considered Rishi Kapoor and Naseeruddin Shah then, but both didn't happen because of date problems."

No qualms about showing skin: Kangana Ranaut in the poster of I Love You Boss. She eventually made her debut in Gangster this year

No regrets

Kangana unhesitatingly admitted that she was supposed to star in I Love You Boss, but later lost interest in the film. She said that she had no problems to work in a film with Sinha, but blamed Nihalani for not starting the film on time.

"They took a long time to finalise the man who would play the boss. In fact, before Sinhaji was finalised, I had told Nihalani that I did not want to do the film. I had gone away to Delhi and was doing modelling and theatre. Finally, when they zeroed down on Sinhaji, they got back to me and asked me if I would reconsider doing the film. I refused."

Kangana further said that she met Basu a month after I Love You Boss was a closed chapter.

"I have no regrets in life. Today, I am very happy. I have signed a three-film contract with UTV. I am also doing Suneel Darshan's Shakalaka Boom Boom. And, of course, I have Mahesh Bhatt's Woh Lamhe, which I am almost done with."

Photos returned

Nihalani said that Kangana is still in touch with him. "I have nothing against her. It's a call she took and she has every right to do so. She was very professional and returned the signing amount, too. In turn, I gave her the pictures of the photo shoot back. I Love You Boss has not happened till date, simply because I have failed to find the right girl. I will make that film in due course."

In a day or two, Ranaut starts shooting Anurag Basu's UTV film titled Metro, co-starring Shilpa Shetty, Kay Kay Menon and Konkona Sen Sharma.