Ranveer Singh (not so) secretly visits Sanjay Leela Bhansali: Is he back in Padmavati?

Curiouser and curiouser. Alice (of Adventures in Wonderland fame) said those words when drinking a potion (or was it eating a portion of cake?) made her elongate and grow tall. The shock of “folding out like a telescope” apparently made Alice forget her English. As for us, we’ve forgotten all our grammar and syntax at the latest developments in the Padmavati case. Let’s do a whirlwind recap of the story so far: [caption id=“attachment_2969896” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Ranveer Singh. Photo: Sachin Gokhale/Firstpost[/caption] Sanjay Leela Bhansali wanted to make Padmavati — a film that is based on his opera-ballet of the same name from 2008. For his magnum opus, he wanted to cast together, for the third time (after Goliyon Ki Raasleela: Ram-Leela and Bajirao Mastani) his muses (or is it musae?) du jour — Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone. They would play the roles of Alauddin Khilji and Rani Padmini. Padukone was apparently a shoo-in , thanks to a glass ceiling-shattering paycheque worth Rs 12 crore in total. But even as fans were preparing for the big screen fest that would be Singh as Khilji, some bad news was reported. The “villain” in this case was seemingly the good guy from the real story — Rani Padmini’s husband Rawal Ratan Singh. Or rather who would play him on screen. Speculation flew fast and thick over who would play the part: Would it be Vicky Kaushal? Would it be Shahid Kapoor? Kapoor seemed to be the chosen one . But just as casting for Ratan Singh’s part seemed to have been finalised, came the shocker: Bhansali might have been on the lookout for a new Alauddin Khilji — and may have approached Shah Rukh Khan (who, reportedly, didn’t have the 200 days the shoot required) or Hrithik Roshan for the same. What! Why? Cue, some more speculation: Bhansali was apparently displeased with his protege (Ranveer Singh) having asked for a bound script of Padmavati. Singh, now facing a fall out with Bhansali, decided to focus on his film with his other favourite director Zoya Akhtar instead. Note that through this all, not one word of confirmation came from Deepika, Ranveer or Sanjay Leela Bhansali about this reported round of casting-couch-musical-chairs. Ranveer of course, has been in Switzerland, vacationing with friends. Despite being on a break, he has regularly posted updates to his Instagram account (and not just about his holiday or fanboy odes to other stars ) but also work-related commitments such as his new ad film with Rohit Shetty . But he didn’t issue any clarifications about the status of the Padmavati project. And now, we may finally have a reason for this: Perhaps Singh had never been ‘replaced’ at all? The actor paid a visit to Bhansali’s home over this weekend 20-21 August, soon after his return to Mumbai. He even shared an image of himself with the director, in which both seem completely at ease, and without any hint of the acrimony that has formed the basis for many of the stories around Padmavati. Singh was all smiles as he ran into the paparazzi posted outside Bhansali’s home, but refused to answer any questions about the purpose of his visit. Does this mean we’ll soon hear a formal announcement about Ranveer being cast as Alauddin Khilji? And what if another actor is indeed announced for the part? Watch this space. Update: News reports have now emerged that say Ranveer Singh has moved to a new residence to be closer to the sets of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmavati shoot. As per this Times of India article, Ranveer is preparing for his Padmavati look. Truth or speculation? We’ll know in a while.