One actor's loss is always someone else's gain. It's a rule not just for the film industry but for life in general. Just recently, it was heard that Mai Ratnam had originally approached Shah Rukh Khan to do a role in his latest Raavan. It's only when things did not work out with him that he roped in Abhishek Bachchan.

The news was s bit of a shocker as the actor was seen to be replacing Madhavan as Mani's favourite actor after Guru. But now it turns out that he was not the first choice for Mani. It seems that Mani had already decided on Aishwarya Rai Bcahchan, who too felt that SRK would be the best choice for the role. When Mani approached SRK, the latter really had no film in hand, as things had not worked out with the Robot director or with Raj Kumar Hirani for 3 Idiots. He had all the time in the world. But before the two could reach any kind of agreement, SRK is believed to have committed himself to good friend Aditya Chopra. So Abhisekh was then roped in. Anyway, Abhi now seems to have lost a project to actor Abhimanyu Singh. Director Chandra Prakash Dwivedi was initially keen to cast him in his Kunal Avadan, a film which explores the relationship between King Ashoka and his son Kunal. It is being produced by AB Corp. He wanted him to play the young Ashoka in the movie. But once Dwivedi saw Gulaal, he was bowled over by Abhimanyu's performance and has decided to cast him as the young Ashoka. This young actor has been seen in bit roles in films like Rakesh Mehra's Aks and Kunal Deshmukh's Jannat before he noticed for his performance in Anurag Kashyap's Gulaal. Abhi may still get a shot at being a part of the movie, but not as his father's younger self.