- Mallika Stewart, San wa, Hong Kong, 2005. The Bollywood rumour was that the racy Mallika beat three other Indian actresess because she agreed to full frontal nudity. In a Jackie Chan movie?!!
- Esha Deol, Kaal, India, 2005. The “Bollywood Queen” was just too busy for the fundamentally horror flick. Director Soham Shah didn’t have much luck in his casting. Said Ali Khan, Shahid Kapur, Nana Patekar all refused the the lead and Priyanka said she wasn’t free to play Riya.
- Bipasha Basu, Dhoom 2, India, 2006. Priyanka had no time for Brazil locations, let alone competing with the – at last! – screen teaming of Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai… their screen kiss led to an obscenity court case.
- Aishwarya Rai, Umrao Jaan, India, 2006. Privanka simply took over her rival Ash’s role in Bluff Master – “althoigh I cannot compare myself to Aishwarya Rai.” Both actresses won Miss World: Ash in 1994 and Mimi (to the Chopra family) in 2000.
- Lara Dutta, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, India, 2007. Chopra’s diary was too full. Priyanka and Lara were rivals ever since debuting in The Hero: Love Story of a Spy, 2003, “Priyanka’s very talented,” agreed Lara, Miss Universe 2000, “but I don’t think we’re up for the same slot. Both of us will definitely create our own slots.” Just not yet… So no Paris locations for her!
- Bipasha Basu, Race, India, 2008. The director brothers known collectively as Abbas-Mastan tried to convince her to become Sonia. Oh no, too negative, said she. So now, no South African locations for her!
- Asin, Ghajini, India, 2008. Actor Aamir Khan loved the Tamil movie and set about re-making it (and his body!). He wanted Asin – Queen of Kollywood! – to remain in the Hindi version. His producers weren’t keen on South Indian actresess (even if they spoke English, French, Hindi, Malyalam, Sanskritt, Tamil, Telugu,) and wanted“Sunshine” (Priyanka). Aamir held fast. And no one was going to argue with his enriched pecs and abs.
- Mandi Sidhu, London Dreams, 2009. Had to miss the rock musical due to other contrtacts. “I got into the movies by accident. When I got an offer, I thought let’s try this, too. Everything in my life has happened by trial and error. I didn’t even think I would win Miss India so where’s the question of thinking I’d come this far.”
- Aishwarya Rai, Endhiran/The Robot/Robo, India, 2010. During the decade it took Tollywood director S Shankar to make his dream project, various Hindi and Tamil ladies were set to be Sana, with whom the robot, Chitthi, falls in love during India’s priciest movie, $35m (double Bollywood’s Blue budget), with costumes, stunts, SFX by the Batman, Matrix, Jurassic Park teams, locations in Austria, Brazil, Peru, USA, it became inevitable who would co-star with Rajnkanth, 60, the bus conductor turned moustachioed megastar of 150 action movies and worshipped, quite literally, by fans of the Kannada, Malayalam, Ytamil, Telugu, language movies of South Indian cinema – India’s largest. “There’s no other beauty in our generation like Aishwarya Rai,” he said. “She’s a born artiste.” As if we didn’t know that!
- Gal Gadot, Wonder Woman, 2015. On Warner shelves for a full decade (not helped by David Kelley’s disastrous 2011 TVersion), spinning through numerous wondwer women directors, the demi-goddess daughter of Zeus, eventually became the Israeli Gadot.“Very different,” she said, “from the experienced, super-confident, grown-up woman” she’d teaser-trailed that year in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, 2015. Her rivals for the DC Extended Universe included Mischa Barton, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, Rachel Bilson, Sandra Bullock in 2001 (and for the 2011 tele-film), Bollywood’s Priyanka Chopra in 2006, US wrestling star Chyna, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Eva Green, Mad Men’s busty Christina Hendricks (Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2011 choice), Angelina Jolie in 2001 (ten years later she was asked to direct), Cobie Smulders (WW’s voice in The Lego Movie, 2013), Kristen Stewart. The final trio, auditioning in November 2013, were Olga Kurylenko, Elodie Yung and… Gadot. Chopra was the surprise 2006 choice, leading to LA headlnes and her eventual US break in ABC’s Quantico, 2015.
- Ileana D’Cruz, Baadshaho, India, 2017. What does a director Milan Luthria do when Aishwarya RaiBachchan refuses to play Maharani Gayatri Devi? He simply gives the Rajathaniqueen a new name – Gitanjali – and and offers her to Chopra, Shruti Hassan, Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor. D’Cruz and her bodyguard, Ajay Devgan sizzled, just not enough to save then.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 11