Samantha walks out of Mani Ratnam’s ‘Kadal’

Much to the shock of those in the film industry, Samantha has walked out of ace director Mani Ratnam‘s prestigious project ‘Kadal‘! Mani Ratnam is currently on the look out for a new face to replace her.

The film has made several headlines as it brings back Mani Ratnam to what he is best at, an out and out romantic entertainer and marks the debut of Karthik‘s son Gautham. Several scenes have already been shot and the shoot was taking place in locales near Kanyakumari until recently.

There are several rumors that are doing the rounds that the actress walked out of the project due to several other offers, a date clash between her and cinematographer Rajeev Menon and that the actress was recently suffering a skin allergy due to shoot in the water!

She currently has bilingual ‘Naan Ee‘, trilingual ‘Neethanae En Ponvasantham‘, a film with Shankar – Vikram and is likely to sign on ‘Biriyani‘ with Karthi, all these apart from a number of Telugu films.

However it’s quite shocking that the actress walked out of such a big project! We’ll have to wait to see what she has to say about this.

Mani Ratnam picks Thulasi

Now that Samantha has walked out of Mani Ratnam‘s upcoming venture ‘Kadal‘, the ace director has found a replacement for her in the form of Thulasi, the younger daughter of Radha and the younger sister of Karthika.

A few days ago, after it was confirmed that Samantha was out of the film, Thulasi along with her parents met Mani Ratnam in Chennai and signed the project officially, it is learnt.

“Since Thulasi is a school going girl, Mani Ratnam feels that she would fit well to the role of a 15-year-old girl in Kadal,” sources say, adding: “Thulasi will share the screen space with Karthik‘s son Gautham, who too is making his debut with this film.”

Remember Karthik and Radha made their debut together in ‘Alaigal Oivadhillai‘, directed by Bharathiraja in the early 1980s. Now after three long decades, history is repeating itself, one can say.

What made Samantha quit Mani Ratnam’s film?

Every actor, be it in the south or north, established or budding, dreams of being cast in a Mani Ratnam directorial is an open secret. Considering this, Samantha walking out of a prestigious Mani Ratnam film especially after shooting few scenes has become the talk of the town.

Several rumors sparked off as the reasons as to why the actress quit the film such as several other interesting offers, date issues, skin issues for shooting in water and a tan due to the shoot and several other.

Joining these rumors is another take that Mani Ratnam and Rajeev Menon weren’t happy with the rushes of the scenes that were shot so far and felt that the actress looks mature for her role and opposite Gautham since she plays a 13 year old in the film! It’s said that Samantha who is 27 looked too mature with Gautham who is just 19. However now Radha‘s younger daughter Thulasi (14) has been roped in for the role by Mani Ratnam and she’ll join the shoot after a workshop.

As earlier reported, the shoot took a toll on the actress who wrote on her microblogging page, “Unfortunately I had to opt out of Mani Sir’s film, my loss! But had to do it cause of my being sick left my dates in a huge mess”.