Randeep Hooda replaces Emraan Hashmi in Murder-3!

Emraan Hashmi, Randeep Hooda

Emran Hashmi shot into fame by committing hot murder with Malliika Sherawat and became popular as serial kisser. He never looked back as he enjoyed kissing and seducing hot beauties. Freshly he went on to declare "Murder" is my turf", in a joint interview with Mahesh Bhatt. Both of them had even come together to promote their movie "Jannat 2", silencing their detractors. Mahesh said it has become difficult to catch hold of Emraan post the success of "Dirty Picture" and "Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai", Emraan told that he needed to do movies outside their banner and his comfort zone to prove himself as an actor.

This lead to speculation that Emran will be starring in Murder sequel but to everyone's shock he was replaced by Randeep Hooda and sources claim that there is a certain Bhatt behind Emraan's ouster. According to insider, "Both Mukesh and Vishesh went to Emraan with the script for narration. However, when Emraan heard the story, he felt that there were some serious loopholes that needed to be addressed in order to make it a better film." What's more, Emraan even refused to sign the film unless those changes were implemented. The source further adds, "This irked Vishesh, who felt that Emraan was acting pricey due to his star status; thus he signed Randeep instead."

Reacting to this, Emraan tells, "They (the Bhatts) are family, so I guess I'll always be associated with them somewhere. But I do have the freedom to say no to a film as well." When contacted, Randeep, who is presently shooting in Sri Lanka for "Jism 2", sounded excited about working with the Bhatts again. "Jannat 2" was a great experience and all I can say right now is that I'm thrilled to be doing "Murder 3"." Has this recent development caused any issues between him and Emraan? "Not at all. We both are doing a film together which is not a Vishesh Films production. We both are cool,"

Mukesh Bhatt tells, "The reason why we picked Randeep was that both "Murder" and " Murder 2" were targeted at single screen audiences, but my son Vishesh wanted to make an urban film that targets the multiplex audience as well. And for that, he thought that Randeep fit the bill perfectly". However Mahesh Bhatt is unavailable for explanation.