Bengali girl Mishti is Subhash Ghai’s Kaanchi : Bollywood News

As he turns a year older today, Bollywood's showman, Subhash Ghai will be ending his four year hiatus with the announcement of his next venture Kaanchi. Earlier we had reported that Ghai had signed on Kartik Tiwari to play the lead role in the film, though at that time the female lead was still a bit sketchy. However, now we hear that Ghai's big announcement will be the leading lady of the film Mishti.

Bengali girl Mishti is Subhash Ghai’s Kaanchi

Apparently, the Kolkata based 21 year old girl Mishti, was roped in post auditioning more than 240 girls for the role. Initially recommended by one of Ghai's assistants, the showman decided to call her to Mumbai post viewing her photographs. Once here, she was made to go through various screen tests for six days, which on completion Ghai says that she emerged to be an actress of Kajol's caliber.

The film which will is scheduled to go on floors on Feb 18, will be made on a budget of approximately Rs. 35 crores. Kaanchi is set to tunes by Ismail Darbar and Salim-Sulaiman and tells the story of an innocent girl from Uttarakhand whose father, an ex-army man, gets shot. The event turns her life upside down, and after a certain point she refuses to be the victim and stands up to fight her way out and emerges a winner.

Commenting on the auditions and Mishti's selection Ghai says, "It is really a tough job to write a good script which, promises to be a blockbuster, as well as a great story with great characters, particularly the protagonist and the tougher job is when you decide to pick up a newcomer to play the title role instead of an established star. It was my very intense struggle to find a Kaanchi, I went on auditioning the most beautiful girls and the talented ones; around 350 girls were auditioned to get the right Kaanchi, the way I had imagined in my script. I found so many beautiful girls with talent but could not find my Kaanchi in them till I saw a picture of Mishti who is from Kolkata. As I auditioned her, I knew in the very first shot that 'she was the Kaanchi I was looking for'. I was looking more for the right face rather than a beauty. Today I am glad that my hunt is over. What I have to do is now is to just make a beautiful film Kaanchi."

With the release date being lock in for August 15, 2013, Mishti who is currently taking extensive training in acting, speech, dancing and martial arts will be the 11th new face Ghai is launching in his career.