Race is pacing up at the box office, but Race was all about replacements in its scripting stages. The entire star cast was reportedly changed before it finally hit the floors. It was Priyanka Chopra instead of Bipasha Basu and Ajay Devgan instead of Anil Kapoor in Race. And it was never a secret that Fardeen Khan and Mallika Sherawat were the original choice for the characters of Akshaye Khanna and Sameera Reddy. While Fardeen had date issues, the role went onto John Abraham, but he declined, as he didn't want a negative image. However director Abbas, of Abbas-Mastan fame, denies that John was ever approached for it. "The star cast was finalised with Saif ali Khan, Fardeen Khan and Anil Kapoor only. In the girls, Bipasha, Katrina and Mallika were finalised. Mallika was suppose to play the role of Sameera Reddy."While John may or may not have declined it, Bipasha on the other hand was very pleased to step into Priyanka's shoes. But Abbas maintains Bipasha was the first choice. "The schedule was shifted four months later. Bipasha gave us time one year before the shooting started. Nobody else was approached."There are reports that also suggest that Anil Kapoor's role was initially offered to Ajay Devgan and Akshay Kumar, who refused it. Ajay found it too intense and Akki didn't want to play a second fiddle. Abbas plays ignorant on this one too, "I don't know about that, may be Ramesh Tolani (producer). He is making 4-5 films a year, he must have contacted them for some other film or some other project, that I don’t know."Abbas-Mastaan's casting mystery is still a mystery, one wonder what would it have been to see these faces on the screen and off it too, especially now that Race is doing good at the Box-Office? ... read more »