

Also, her face when she gets out of a palanquin induces a laugh from audience. Deepika just seems to be struggling with her emoting abilities. Her last scene with her son where she tells him to go with the guards was supposed to melt our hearts. She just doesn't have varied expressions. Deepika just made me feel the need of the supremely talented Aishwarya Rai in many scenes.

She seems like a complete misfit for the role of Mastani and looks too tall and modern to be able to carry off the royal look.

Her dialogue delivery is so weak in some scenes and her dance in the "rang do mohe lal" song just lacks the charm and grace. Sadly, Deepika failed to live up to my expectations. Seriously, I was expecting more from Deepika Padukone in Bajirao Mastani since she is one of the eponymous character in this movie and she can be called this generation's female Bollywood superstar no doubt after her brilliant outing in Piku and Tamasha. The project was finally properly revived in 2014 when Bhansali finally decided on his lead actress from Mary Kom (2014), Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and his lead pair from Рам і Ліла (2013), Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone. Over the following decade, Bhansali kept expecting the project to be his next film, with several major actors being approached or rumored to be linked to the project, including Shahrukh Khan, Ajay Devgn, Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif, while some in the industry believed it would never be made, calling it jinxed. (2005), as he had wanted to be the first director to unite the pair, as he stated on the talk show Episode #1.4 (2004).

Bhansali kept Khan on and approached Kareena Kapoor to play Mastani and Rani Mukerji to play Kashibai but shelved his plans and moved on to other projects after Khan and Kapoor both signed on to star in Kyon Ki. Bhansali initially wanted to cast Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, his lead pair from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), as the lead actors, with Bhoomika Chawla playing Kashibai, but his plans fell through when the real-life couple had a messy, highly-publicized breakup. A passion project for director Sanjay Leela Bhansali since the 1990s, even before he made his directorial debut, Khamoshi: The Musical (1996).
