After filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali dropped Kareena Kapoor from his project ‘Ram Leela’ as he felt ‘married Kareena’ wouldn’t be able to do justice to the movie of Juliet, he was left with the question of whom to cast as new Juliet opposite Ranveer Singh as Romeo.

The director considered the likes of Priyanka Chopra and Katrina Kaif for his Juliet. Previously it was reported that Priyanka Chopra had replaced Kareena Kapoor but according to reports she lost out as the director wanted an actress with fair skin. Hence, Katrina Kaif was the lead runner but as the actress has no free dates available the director has finally settled with Deepika Padukone.

“Bhansali wanted an A list heroine to play Leela. He approached Katrina but she did not have dates. Deepika was the only one with available dates for the project. Bhansali was only too happy to have her,” said a source to Mumbai Mirror.

Even Deepika Padukone couldn’t give the director her dates easily and in the end ended up allotting the director the dates she had previously allotted for Karan Johar and Ekta Kapoor’s joint venture.

“The other project was taking too much time. The script wasn't ready. So Deepika simply transferred her dates to Bhansali's film,” the source said.

The actress just recently gave the nod to the project as she is currently busy with Ayan Mukerji’s ‘Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani’ opposite Ranbir Kapoor, Abbas- Mustan’s ‘Race 2’, Rohit Shetty’s ‘Chennai Express’ and Tamil movie ‘Kochadaiyaan’ opposite Rajinikanth.

“She signed on the dotted lines only recently. Bhansali had approached her about 25 days back. He also considering a fresh face but was happy to have Deepika on board,” the source concluded.