Was Katrina a terrible choice for Rajniti?

Prkash Jha's films are thought provoking and extremely powerful, he is one of the top filmmakers in India. Just take a look at his three previous films - Mrityudand, Gangajal and Apaharan. Now consider the heroines in his last two films - Gracy Singh in Gangajal and Bipasha Basu in Apaharan.

Both the actresses were terrible miscast in those films; in fact their characters were quite unnecessary as they didn't add anything to the plot. Gracy Singh, in what was her last mainstream role was reduced to the hero's irritating wife in Gangajal, and Bipasha Basu virtually sleepwalked in a saree though her tiny role in Apaharan. In short, director Prakash Jha had cast both the actresses only to add the masala factor in his films. Gracy Singh was on top in 2003 when Lagaan had a whiff of the Oscars and Munnabhai MBBS rolled in loads of cash and fans. Ganagajal was purely Ajay Devgan's movie, Gracy was the one flaw in the otherwise watertight film.

In 2005 Bipasha Basu was turning out to be the hottest girl in Bollywood thanks to her films Raaz, Jism, Barsaat etc. And she had already been finalised for Dhoom 2. It was more than obvious that Prakash Jha would pick Bipasha for an underwhelming, tiny role in Apaharan. Once again, a unbelievably taut film had one loose end - the character of Bipsaha Basu.

Now Jha is back with 'Rajniti', another socio-political thriller set in UP with a strong cast including Ajay Devgan, Nana Patekar, Ranbir Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Manoj Bajpai, Naseeruddin Shah and Katrina Kaif. Now the latter has been hogging the limelight since the past two years, we have to admit that Katrina is everywhere! She has done ELEVEN big budget films in the past year and a half, and most of them have turned out to be blockbusters. Sample these - Partner, Welcome, Race, Singh is Kinng, Hello, Yuvraj, New York, Blue, Ajab Prem, De Dana Dan and now Rajniti. Six of those films are huge hits.

Would you watch Rajniti for Katrina Kaif? Or would you watch it for a mind blowing, hard hitting saga on UP politics? Whether or not Katrina's role is based on Sonia Gandhi, there are more talented actresses in Bollywood. So did Prakash Jha make the right decision by roping in Katrina Kaif?