MIRA Nair is not 'chasing' Bollywood hottie Ranbir Kapoor for her next movie, at least not anymore.
The filmmaker has already found the perfect actor to play the 20-something role of Changez in her screen adaptation of Mohsin Hamid's Booker-nominated novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
Nair confirmed: “We cast our lead in Reluctant Fundamentalist long ago and it is Rizwan Ahmed. No question of anyone else.” A source added: “Ranbir is certainly not in the reckoning. Mira stopped looking for her lead six months ago right after her audition with the Pakistani-British actor.”
Rizwan has been much applauded for his performances on television and in feature films like The Road To Guantanamo and Shifty.
Nair thinks he is perfect to play the lead in this cross-cultural Pakistani-American romance. Surprisingly, the filmmaker has been finding it difficult to convince Bollywood's A-list actors to work with her. For The Namesake, she had pursued Abhishek Bachchan for months before throwing in the towel and opting for Kal Penn.
The buzz is that Ranbir, too, was not interested in this role, which is why she had to settle for Rizwan.