Mumbai, Aug 2: Delightful beauty Deepika Padukone is all set to become Bollywood 'Juliet'. Sanjay Leela Bhansali who is scouting for heroine for his upcoming film 'Ram Leela' planned to cast Kareena Kapoor. However Sajay Bhansali who is keen to have unmarried heroine for the project announced the same. Kareena who is all set to marry Saif Ali Khan let the project due to 'contractual differences', the filmmaker reportedly wanted Priyanka Chopra and later Katrina Kaif to play the role.Deepika Padukone will now be seen romancing Ranveer Singh in the filmmaker's adaptation of Shakespeare's famous play.

A close source revealed, "Bhansali wanted an A list heroine to play Leela. He approached Katrina but she did not have dates. Deepika was the only one with available dates for the project. Bhansali was only too happy to have her." According to sources , Deepika's dates did not come too easily. The actress apparently gave the dates she had allotted for the Ekta Kapoor - Karan Johar joint venture to Bhansali. "The other project was taking too much time. The script wasn't ready. So Deepika simply transferred her dates to Bhansali's film." For Deepika this is not a new phenomena as the actress, who had donned a go-getter attitude this year, had pulled out of Ramesh Taurani's Race 2 after shooting for a week. That time too, she had reportedly wanted to allot her dates to other projects.

Ever since then, Deepika has bagged several other projects that had earlier been pitched to her colleagues from the industry. Reportedly, after Kareena Kapoor opted out of Rohit Shetty's Chennai Express, Deepika jumped in to bag the role. This time too, Deepika seems to have emerged successful. "She signed on the dotted lines only recently. Bhansali had approached her about 25 days back. He also considering a fresh face but was happy to have Deepika on board," said the source close to the project.