Bollywood Paradize: Prachi Desai to play a Muslim girl for Ekta Kapoor

Prachi Desai has been signed for Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Films to play the role of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s soul mate Mehjabeen in Milan Luthria’s ‘Once Upon A Time In Mumbai’.

Prachi will be playing a Muslim working class girl in 1975 who gets involved with a don. Prachi has done a lot of research on the role and says, “This character is from a time that existed before me. Yes I’ve done plenty of reading on my character. I want to look and feel like Mehjabeen. And it’s such a challenge. And doing a film with Balaji is like coming home. Shobha Aunty, Jeetu Uncle and Ekta are like family. I remained connected with them when I did Rock On because it was directed by Ekta’s cousin Gattu (Abhishek Kapoor). My second film Life Partner has Ekta’s brother Tusshar Kapoor as my co-star. And now I’m finally doing a Balaji production.”

Ekta and Prachi are going through all the available video footage on the lady. In fact they have been hunting through all over the Muslim localities of Mumbai last month including Haji Ali to pick up authentic salwar-kameez.

Says Prachi, “That’s true. I didn’t want to get into yet another wife’s role after Rock On and Life Partner. Come on, yaar! I’m so young. I want to have fun and I keep getting these serious roles. But playing the don’s life partner in Once Upon A Time … was a challenge that I couldn’t resist.”