Samantha opts out of Mani Ratnam's 'Kadal'

Sultry siren Samantha Ruth Prabhu, who is on a roll with umpteen projects in her kitty, has reportedly opted out of director Mani Ratnam's much anticipating film 'Kadal' which is under production. The reasons behind the development are ambiguous.

Mani Ratnam had zeroed in on her for the lead role in the movie which launches Gautam Karthik, son of yesteryear actor Karthik. Before Sam was roped into the project, Mani had his heart on Sonam Kapoor as she suited the adolescent girl's role. But later he had to look for an eleventh-hour replacement for unknown reasons.

The maverick director reportedly even considered many including - Radha's younger daughter Thulasi Nair (Karthika's sibling) and director-actor R Parthepan's daughter Keerthana were doing the rounds.

Mani finally chose Sam after a great deal of deliberations. Needless to say that Samantha was on cloud nine when she signed the flick. She had said it was her dream project and was privileged to work with a director of the stature of Mani Ratnam.

Samantha, who is super busy with slew of big ticket films in Telugu and Tamil, might have had trouble allocating her dates to the director ace and missed the project.

Meanwhile Samantha was unavailable for comment. 'Samantha is out of the town and she will be coming to Hyderabad on June 10,' said Samantha's personal assistant.

The 'Dookudu' diva has Rajamouli's 'Eega', Gautham Menon's 'Yeto Vellipoindi Manasu', Srikanth Addala's 'Seethamma Vaakitlo Sirimalle Chettu', Nandini Reddy's movie opposite Siddharth.

She even bagged a female lead role opposite Vikram in Shankar's forthcoming movie to be produced by Oscar Ravichandran.

The news has taken cine pundits and film fraternity by surprise.
Samantha was earlier in the news for opting out of Nandini Reddy and Bellamkonda Suresh's movie.

But later she called for truce as producer B Suresh complained about her in Producers' Council and finally succeeded in roping her.

'Kadal' is one of the most anticipated films and a considerable portion of the film has already been shot.

Mani has put in great efforts and painstakingly developed the film. Madras Mozart AR Rahman composes music for the film. With Samantha decided to walk out of 'Kadal', Mani Ratnam will have to again hunt for a replacement.

According to the script of 'Kadal', we hear, the female protagonist is an adolescent girl. Watching Samantha's Telugu films, Mani felt that she could pull off the role of a teeny village belle, and shot some scenes with her.

Speculation is rife that Radha's younger daughter Thulasi Nair is considered to step into Sam's shoes.

If everything goes on place Radha will be the happiest person as her elder daughter Karthika is already going great guns. Seems director Mani is keen to go ahead with a newbie. Let's wait and watch for the official confirmation.