Sonali Bendre replaces Prachi Desai as Mumtaz in OUATIMD

Prachi Desai, who played Shoaib's (Emraan Hashmi) beautiful love interest in Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai (2010), was initially peeved upon not being cast in the sequel of the film Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Dobaara (OUATIMD). But the main point was as Shoaib's character grew in age and turned from a boy to man, the producers cast Akshay Kumar to play the character. As a result of the same there had to be a change in the casting of Mumtaz too. To seek an apt replacement, Ekta Kapoor and Milan Luthria convinced Sonali Bendre Behl, who has similar facial characteristics to Prachi, to return to the silver screen. (She was last seen in a cameo in the 2003 made Kal Ho Naa Ho. Sonali's brief but impactful role in Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Dobaara is already the topic of discussion. At the recent iftaar daawat held by Ekta Kapoor, the Balaji head honcho managed a coup by bringing the old and new Mumtaz (Prachi Desai & Sonali Bendre Behl) together. Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Dobaara takes off from where the previous film ended with Shoaib Khan (Akshay Kumar) being the reigning don after assassinating his mentor Sultan Mirza (Ajay Devgn) thus earning the respect and reverence of the people. He is the charismatic and suave man with womanising skills who has extended his empire up to the Middle East.