Item numbers in Bollywood have proved to be very beneficial for many actresses, but it's proving to be just the opposite for Mallika Sherawat. After there were reports that Mallika's new item number in Priyadarshan's Tezz has been edited out from the film, the makers of her upcoming movie Mumbai Mirror have also apparently dropped her from the film. Mumbai Mirror also stars Sachiin Joshi as the male lead.

According to a source, the producers of Mumbai Mirror felt that the actress had failed to cast any magic with her moves in her item song in the Priyadarshan's action thriller. "When the first look of the song Laila was out, it didn't look like Mallika had done anything extraordinary. No one is talking about her song. If her presence in a song can't help to hype it, expecting a film to generate buzz on her name would be expecting too much. So she has been dropped from the movie," said the source.

Apparently, Mallika's high-handed attitude is also to be blamed. The source added, "Even Sachiin is mincing no words when telling people how difficult Mallika is. He's sparing no details about her tantrums." Mallika's spokesperson said, "She was verbally committed to the film but was awaiting the final script. But that didn't come on time. So she opted out."

Caught and dropped?

Regarding her item number being removed, a source associated with the film said, "After a series of discussions between producer Ratan Jain and director Priyadarshan, the final decision was taken. Interestingly, earlier while Jain had insisted on retaining the track, Priyadarshan wanted it out." "Mallika's Laila song doesn't feature in the final copy of the film. Instead of wasting money on promoting it, Ratanji thought it would be better to spend it on the talkie promos and action," the source added.