1. – Grace Singh, Lagaan: Once Upon A Time In India, India, 2001. Auditioned to play Gauri in, despite the title, a less shoot-out than bowled/caught/stumped/run- out cricket match, us v them. Overtaxed Indian villagers versus their British oppressors.
2. – Kirti Reddy, Badhaai Ho Badhaai, India, 2002. Ameesha quit her role just as Karisma Kapoor quit her’s.
3.- Bipasha Basu, Jism, India, 2002. A woman persuades her lawyer lover to murder her husband… Sound familiar? Of course. This is Bollwyood’s Body Heat. William Hurt and Kathleern Turner turn into rather less heated John Abraham and Bipasha Basu – as the Indian film industry fought low audiences with more erotic fare… frigid by Western standards. (By Jism 2, the girl was a porn star!) Patel wanted nothing to do with it. She had a name and a family to respect – being the grand-daughter of Indian freedom fighter, lawyer, and former Justice Rajni Patel.
4. – Bhoomika Chawla, Tere Naam, India, 2003. Scheduling prevented her being the girl falling for a delinquent Salman Khan.
5. – Kareena Kapoor, Chameli, India, 2003. Hey, what did I say about Jism? Nothing interesting in playing the titular hooker in a drama filled with pimps, eunuchs, and crooked cops.
6. – Amrita Rao, Main Hoon Na, India, 2004. Ameesha was up for Sanjana in the romantic Bollywood comedy opposite the Bollywood Tom Cruise, dimpled Shahrukh Khan.
7. – Katrina Kaif, Apne, India, 2007. Unavailable for the first teaming of veteran star Dharmendra and his star sons Bobby and Sunny Deol.
8. – Lara Dutt, Billu, India, 2008. Take your pick from the Bollywood gossip hounds… (a) Patel thought the role of Irrfan Kahn’s wife was not important enough. (b) Malayalam director Priyadarshan felt she looked too young to have two kids or (c) she simply refused to work with Khan.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 8