The film does not have an A-lister in it. With a starcast of Akshaye Khanna, Mugdha Godse and Shriya Saran in the lead, thebudget of the film is not enormous. Sources say that another Bollywood producer is also vying for Nicole’s date.
“There is another Bollywood producer who wants those dates, but Nicole is giving preference to Akshaye’s film as they contacted her first,” the source adds.

Nicole is not new to Bollywood. One of her earlier brushes with Bollywood was when a song Chamma Chamma was used as a background song for her film Moulin Rouge. Later she shot an commercial with Bollywood actor Arjun Rampal and Slumdog Millionaire child actress Rubina Ali. Kidman has always maintained that she would love to dance to Bollywood numbers in her earlier interviews.
“The appearance fee is not much since top Bollywood male actors chargeRs five crore for an appearance. Mallika (Sherawat) was also rumoured to have been paid three crore for an item number. So it was after much consideration that Nicole arrived at the figure since the item number concept is unheard of in Hollywood. She’s also ready to undergo weeks of training required for a Bollywood dance,” adds the source.

Say’s the director of the film, “Whatever is seen in promo is situational in film.”

Mukund Gupta, who won the award for best Production Designer for Do Dooni Chaar, is doing the production design; Aarti Bajaj (Do Dooni Chaar, Jab We Met, Dev D, No One Killed Jessica, Rockstar, apart from several others) will be editing the film.

Rekha & Chinni Prakash, National Award winners for Jodhaa Akbar and with a long list of outstanding achievements credited to their names over the years, will be choreographing the film, while Sham Kaushal, greatly respected and much awarded for Krrish and Kaminey will be handling the action dir

It was known there and then that this boy would be a star, no let me correct it, superstar one day. Saawariya just proved that and even though everything about the film was questioned, scrutinised, challenged and ridiculed, the only person who came out unscathed was Ranbir Kapoor.

This was the first step in the right direction for the superstar.

Saawariya blues. Literally.

When released, Saawariya was termed as a ‘blue film’ due to this being the only colour that one saw on screen. Leaving aside its poor content, the film had many other issues to worry about. First and foremost was its offbeat theme that was just the kind of disastrous beginning that a newcomer could have hoped for. A love story that was not really the one, Ranbir found himself trapped in a set up where he got good opportunity to perform for the classes but lost out on making an impression amongst the masses.

Secondly, the film’s music too wasn’t the kind that one associates with love story of star debutants. There wasn’t anything ‘dhinchak’ for Ranbir here as he found himself on the sets that were totally cut off from reality. Well, literally, as no one till date knows about the period or country of the film’s setting.

Thirdly, and very importantly, the declaration made by Shah Rukh Khan that his Om Shanti Om, which was releasing on the same day, would destroy Saawariya was like the final nail in the coffin. With the ‘Baadshah’ on a high and his film being much superior as well when it came to commercial quotient, it was death kneel for Ranbir’s Saawariya already.

The film opened decently but went downhill soon after. There was nothing that audience took home except for Ranbir’s earnest performance. Not many amongst the masses noticed him though but at least the industry bigwigs were now well aware of the young man’s acting talent.

Bollywood saw a future for Ranbir and though the obvious temptation for him would have been to sign multiple films in one go, he refrained from doing so. This pretty much established that not just Papa Kapoor was pretty much making sure that his son didn’t take a false step ahead; even Ranbir had a thinking head over his shoulders.

Good success ahead

Ranbir knew at this stage that he wasn’t going to repeat the Saawariya mistake again. The ‘mantra’ was to find an ‘audience connect’ and also come across as someone who is ‘a hero’. The film was Bachna Ae Haseeno and though there was a risk factor involved here as well, considering the grey shades that his character carried, the film continued the consistent run of the director Siddharth Anand.

Chartbuster score by Vishal-Shekhar also helped Ranbir find that ‘audience connect’ as his dance on the title song coupled with ‘Khuda Jaane’ became a rage. The film also paired him with (his then girlfriend) Deepika Padukone along with Bipasha Basu and Minissha Lamba. Though the film wasn’t a smash blockbuster, it was a good success nevertheless. Also, it was a sigh of relief for the industry in general as it knew that money could finally ride on Ranbir’s name.

Ranbir still continued to wait and surprised quite a few by doing Wake Up Sid where he had an unlikely pairing with Konkona Sen. Directed by a first timer Ayan Mukherjee, the only consolation factor that resulted in some good vibes for the film was the name Karan Johar attached to the project. The film had a publicity campaign that was different from the routine, the songs were again set in a classy mode and Wake Up Sid didn’t quite seem like a ‘safe venture’.

However, to everyone’s surprise, this medium budget film didn’t just open quite well but also found flavour amongst the target audience – youth. Ranbir’s first clean hit and that too in a setup which wasn’t quintessentially Bollywood, Wake Up Sid established quite firmly that Ranbir wasn’t shying away from experimenting while keeping commerce in mind.