Poor Murugadoss. The Ghajini director is not conversant with the ways of Bollywood. Barely able to follow the Hindi bhasha, Murugadoss finds himself besieged by rumours planted by eager aspirants desirous of being cast opposite Akshay Kumar in his new action-drama, remake of the Tamil blockbuster Thuppakki about an army man's revenge against terrorists.

Says a friend of the director, "Murugadoss has changed his number three times in the last four months. Ever since news of the remake with Akshay Kumar came out, he has been bombarded with calls from heroines in Mumbai."

In fact Vipul Shah and Murugadoss decided to cast a new girl opposite Akshay for this film. We hear five new girls were short-listed for the privilege of playing Akshay's leading lady. But now Akshay has persuaded his Rowdy Rathore co-star Sonakshi Sinha to join him in the Thuppakki remake.

Curiously, Murugadoss in Chennai seems oblivious of this development, "I was told Sonakshi's dates were not working out. I suppose that's been sorted out. We seemed to have very little choice. All the big heroines in Mumbai were tied up with other projects. We auditioned many new girls and zeroed in on 4-5 of the most promising names."

Murugadoss reveals several prominent leading ladies were considered opposite Akshay. "We did approach Parineeti Chopra. But we understand she is committed elsewhere. Her dates are not available."