'Race 2' casting on hold

Mumbai, July 16 (IANS) "Race 2" has got its leading men Anil Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan and John Abraham in place, but their leading ladies are being kept under wraps.

Director duo Abbas-Mustan are not talking about the casting of the girls because his producer Ramesh Taurani is now in Colombo for his daughter's wedding. No one from the film industry is expected to attend the wedding July 18. Taurani, it seems, has flown in only close friends and family.

Therefore the final call on the female casting of "Race 2" is frozen.

"We'll take a final decision once Rameshji returns from Colombo," said Abbas.

According to a source, "Race 2" won't have real life pairs because it is felt that they don't work on big screen.

"Kareena is (expected) to be paired with John because they've never been teamed together before. This depends on the two resolving their personal differences. But Bipasha is a no-no with John and with Saif because that pairing was done in 'Race'.

"The idea it to bring in fresh pairs. So while Kareena would be with John, Asin Thottumkal might be teamed with Saif in 'Race 2'," said a source very close to the project.

There is no information on who would be paired with Anil Kapoor. Last time he teamed up with Sameera Reddy.

Abbas-Mustan are excited about their two projects.

"We've got two back-to-back action films 'Italian Job' and 'Race 2' to shoot for two different production houses (Studio 18 and Tips, respectively). It's a big responsibility because both are big-budgeted multi-starrers to be shot in eye-catching locations and with huge action scenes. Luckily, for us, 'Italian Job' is a heist film and 'Race 2' is a caper. So there's no overlapping," said Abbas.

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