Solitary Rani!

Rani Mukherjee

After ages, Rani Mukherji made a rare appearance at the recent opening of adesigner store in the city, and has agreed to be on Karan’s new show that has been produced by Yash Chopra. Except that, the actress has completely cut off all her ties with some of her regular Bollywood contacts and she almost never steps out of her house.

Currently, Rani is shooting for Rajendra Gupta’s ‘No One Killed Jessica,’ along with Vidya Balan. One of her close filmmaker friends says, “She goes to the studios only when required. Other than that, she has stopped communicating with all of us. I have tried to get her to come out for a movie or have dinner with us but she does not respond.”

Though her friends understand her very well that Rani needs her space right now, but they all are concerned about her and her reclusive behavior. They sincerely hope that this is just a temporary phase and Rani is not joining the ranks of some of the senior actresses like Tabu and Rekha who spend more time behind their locked doors than required.

‘No One Killed Jessica’ is waiting for its Leading Lady

Vidya Balan

The original plan to cast a big star for the role of Jessica Lal, the assassinated model from Delhi, in the upcoming movie ‘No One Killed Jessica‘ has fallen out. Vidya Balan is playing Jessica’s sister Sabrina Lal and Rani Mukherji is playin the role of an investigative journalist. However, the chance of finding an established actor to play the small role of Jessica Lal has faded out. The directors and producers are facing a lack of choice and have decided to cast a newcomer for this role.

A close source says, “Once Vidya and Rani were cast, established actresses who were approached guessed the will have a very little to do especially as the character who gets murdered in the early part of the story. Now they have no choice but to cast a newcomer.” Director of the movie Rajkumar Gupta confirmed saying, “We are looking at casting a new girl as Jessica. We feel the impact of the crime on the audience’s mind would be far greater if the actress playing Jessica is an unknown face, we are looking at a theater actor for Jessica’s role and for other smaller roles.” Siddharth Roy Kapoor of UTV said, “Apart from Rani Mukherji and Vidya Balan, all the other characters in the film form the supporting cast. They are good actors but not known faces.”