Pratyusha out of Star Plus' Daag; Aishwarya, Mouni and Binny in contention for the lead role

It came as a shock to everyone when Pratyusha Banerjee got out of Colors’ super-successful show Balika Vadhu, which made her a star. But soon after that, the pretty damsel was in media headlines as she was roped in by the rival channel Star Plus, for their next big ticket show Daag, produced by Cinevistaas. Even today, there is a presumption that Pratyusha will be seen as the lead face of the show which is said to be adapted from the popular Bollywood flick Khoon Bhari Maang. But hold on, as we have some vital information right here. As per a reliable industry source, Pratyusha and Vatsal Seth were the only names that had been locked for Daag for some time now. However, Pratyusha is now tired of the waiting game (Daag has been in the making for nearly a year now, and Pratyusha has been waiting for this project to go on floors from early this year). Also, there is a buzz that Pratyusha who is being offered good roles in movies too, had an issue with the compensation. Another source went on to say that Pratyusha was not inclined to signing the exclusive contract that Star Plus gets all their actors to do. All this has eventually lead to her ouster from the project. A little birdie has gone on to whisper that the channel is presently in talks with various popular faces for the lead role. And if sources are to be believed, Aishwarya Sakhuja (of Saas Bina Sasural fame, and the host of the ongoing series on Star, India’s Dancing Superstar), Mouni Roy (Mahadev) and Binny Sharma (Tujh Sang Preet) are presently in talks for the role. As of now, it looks as though Aishwarya, who is in association with the channel, is likely to bag the role, though our sources did confirm that the lead face is yet to be locked. We tried contacting Binny, but she asked us to call later. We could not get through to Mouni and Aishwarya, even after repeated attempts. Pratyusha too remained unavailable. When contacted, producer Siddharth Malhotra told us, “Pratyusha was never in the project to be out now. We are still on the lookout for the lead face.” As we know, Simone Singh and Ayub Khan are the other big names that are touted to be part of Daag. We will surely keep our readers updated about further developments in this show.