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"Sanjay Leela Bhansali has cast Deepika Padukone in Ram Leela.  The director had originally cast Kareena Kapoor in the role, but was reportedly  not keen on having a &amp;#039;married&amp;#039; Juliet as the female lead in the adaptation of Shakespeare&amp;#039;s Romeo and Juliet,  The Times of India reports. &amp;quot;Bhansali wanted an A-list heroine to play Leela,&amp;quot; a source close to the project revealed. &amp;quot;He approached Katrina [Kaif], 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.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;She signed on the dotted lines only recently. Bhansali had approached her about 25 days back. He was also considering a fresh face, but was happy to have Deepika on board,&amp;quot; the source added. The actress apparently gave up time that she had previously allotted for a joint production from Ekta Kapoor and Karan Johar to Bhansali. &amp;quot;The other project was taking too much time. The script wasn&amp;#039;t ready. So Deepika simply transferred her dates to Bhansali&amp;#039;s film,&amp;quot; a second insider explained. The Cocktail star has bagged several other film roles recently including Rohit Shetty&amp;#039;s Chennai Express with Shah Rukh Khan, which was also originally offered to Kareena Kapoor. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/bollywood/news/a396301/deepika-padukone-is-bhansalis-juliet-in-ram-leela/>