After the tremendous success of the movie ‘The Dirty Picture’, Ekta Kapoor was keen on casting Vidya Balan in her upcoming movie ‘Shootout at Wadala’.

‘Shootout at Wadala’ is an underworld film based on the encounter of underworld don Manya Surve in 1981. The movie stars John Abraham, Anil Kapoor and Tusshar Kapoor in lead roles.

Vidya Balan was supposed to play the role of John Abraham’s girlfriend, who plays the role of Manya Surve. It is rumored that this the main reason that the actress has opted out of the movie is that she wanted to avoid the link up rumors between her and John Abraham that had stirred up during their ‘Saalam-E-Ishq’ days.

“However, after a while, Vidya seemed to have reservations doing a film with John, lest the old rumors come up again,” revealed a source to Mid-Day.

After Vidya Balan walked out of the project, Ekta Kapoor turned to her another favorite heroine Kangna Ranaut, with whom she has worked in ‘Once Upon a time in Mumbai’.

“After that film Kangna is like family and she was keen to work with Balaji again. This time round too, it's a very intense and pivotal role in the movie. Besides, she's never been paired with John before,” said a source.

Kangna herself confirmed that she is now part of the project.

“It's a great role and franchise. I'm looking forward to it,” she said.

Sanjay Gupta, who is all set to direct this film denied that the reason Vidya Balan walked out was John Abraham. But he refused to give a concrete reason for the same.

“She had told us that she'd wait for the release of The Dirty Picture, before figuring out her next couple of movies. I guess she had other plans. The next obvious choice was Kangna, who's such a powerhouse performer herself,” he said.

This is the first time that John Abraham and Kangna Ranaut have been paired together.