Is this why nobody wanted to sign up for Kahaani 2

The trailer of Kahaani 2 gives you a sense of why so many actresses said ‘no’ to doing this film. First, the actress from the first Kahaani, Vidya Balan rejected the film, leading to much how-could-she-do-this-to-me kind of outrage from the director Sujoy Ghosh who scuttled to Kangna Ranaut.

At that point of time the project was called Durga Rani Singh and was meant to be a story of a brave cop. So when did the cop heroine disappear from the script

When the script went to Kangana, she took nearly two months to decide she didn’t want to do it. Sujoy then took the script to Kareena Kapoor Khan who instantaneously said no to the film.

Exhausted, Sujoy lucked out when Aishwarya Rai Bachchan liked the script and agreed to do it. But then, Sujoy had second thoughts because the original choice, Vidya Balan said ‘yes’. What made Vidya change her mind Could it be the fact that all her films since Kahaani in 2012 had bombed Without a by-your-leave from Aishwarya, Sujoy quickly and quietly signed Balan and Rai was forgotten.

The trailer of Kahaani 2 opens well with Vidya doing the distressed mother’s act with heart wrenching scrupulosity. Mother gets a call from the kidnapper, runs out, gets knocked down and goes into a coma. So far, so good. But then the trailer derails as it proceeds to cram in every kind of red herring, including a kidnap-murder-charge against the heroine.

Curiously, many films this year have had the protagonist bonding with a little girl— Rocky Handsome, Jack Reacher, Shivaay. Looks like Bajrangi Bhaijaan has had its effect.

The little girl who plays Vidya Balan’s daughter in Kahaani 2 keeps mumbling, “They don’t let me sleep. I have to fix this.”

Could that be the scriptwriter’s line