Anurag Basu is a filmmaker, who has an eye for new talents and he has done it again for his next venture Barfee, which stars big stars like Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra. They were looking for another girl to play the second heroine in the film.
Initially, the role was offered to Asin and then to Deepika Padukone. Asin did not accept because of money issue and Deepika had obvious reasons, for the male lead!
Anurag saw the pictures of South Indian actress Ileana D'Cruz, who debuted in 2006 Telugu film Devadasu. Basu then showed the pictures to Ranbir, who looked her immediately and said that Illeana had the kind of delicacy and grace like Deepika.
In this way, the 23-year-old South Indian star Illeana got her first Bollywood break. Anurag met the actress and her mother and things got finalized in few days.
He elaborated them about Illeana's role in Barfee and also made it clear that Priyanka Chopra will be playing the other leading lady. Illeana, who has already grabbed the lead role in Tamil remake of 3 idiots, will have to get her Hindi diction right before she faces camera for Barfee.
So, we can expect another South Indian actress making her way to Bollywood after Asin and Genelia. Hope she becomes as successful as them!