Katrina (not PC) confirmed for Kabir-Saif next

Katrina Kaif has beaten Priyanka Chopra in the race to bag a role in Kabir Khan's next.

It's official. Katrina Kaif will star opposite Saif Ali Khan in Kabir Khan's next (yet untitled), produced by Sajid Nadiadwala. The actress has given her nod of consent to Kabir last night.

While this comes as a dampener for Priyanka Chopra, who was a close contender in the race for the role, sources close to the development say Katrina was always Kabir's first choice for Nadiadwala's film. Just that first, Bang Bang where she stars opposite Hrithik Roshan went for a toss with Hrithik's brain surgery and next, Saif got too busy with his other projects.

A source revealed: "Katrina's problem was she had her dates messed up because her film with Hrithik, Bang Bang, got delayed due to his accident. Another hitch, which came up only recently was that Saif got too tied up with Bullet Raja, Humshakal and Happy Ending. That's really when Kabir started thinking of getting Priyanka on board."

While Saif had been finalised as lead actor around three months ago, Katrina and Priyanka were vying for the role of leading lady.

Not so long ago, Kabir had a word with Saif to adjust his dates with Katrina, who in turn, got in touch to check the status on Bang Bang. Much to Katrina's delight, she finally had things falling in place with respect to her two films.

It is learnt that Kabir's film is a thriller to be shot in London, USA, Kashmir and Punjab. He has written the script and Pritam Chakraborty will score the film's music.

The movie, scheduled to go on floors this October, will see Katrina and Saif pairing for the second time, the first being Abbas Mustan's Race 2.

According a source close to Nadiadwala, Katrina will be seen in a new avatar in the film. Kabir was heard telling his friends that Katrina's look in his next will be vastly different from her look in his last film, Ek Tha Tiger. In the past, Katrina has worked with Kabir in Kabul Express.