Shyam Benegal, a famous Bollywood director, is making “Chamki”, a desi version of George Bizet’s, French Musician, 1875 opera “Carmen”. But the question which arises is that who is going to play the lead role of a fiery-tempered free-spirited gypsy in the film? According to some sources, between Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka is a better choice because Chamki’s role needs a trained dancer.

When Priyanka was contacted, she said that she has welcomed the offer because everyone wishes to work with Shyam Benegal. She also added that she has read the script long time ago and the entire project needs a fresh evaluation. Earlier Sanjay Gupta had the project, but now it is Big Pictures who is producing the movie.

Both Kareena and Priyanka were approached by the director in the past, but due to various reasons they denied. In the beginning Kareena was excited and charged by Chamki’s character and Karishma’s role in “Zubeidaa”, which was also directed by Benegal. But going with her nature she opted out as she did with Rituparno Ghosh’s “Raincoat” and Deepa Mehta’s “Water” and her reason for denial was that attempting something so unconventional is too early for her.

After Kareena denied Priyanka got the chance, but Sanjay Gupta, movie’s then producer, and Priyanka had fallout when she denied to Sanjay Gupta’s “Musafir”. Then Urmila Matondkar got the role of “Chamki”, but due to monetary issues she also left the project.
It has been heard that Priyanka is showing interest in the project, but what about Kareena, nobody knows.

The set of “Chamki” has been set up in Rajasthan and has been re-designed. The lyrics of the movie have been penned by Javed Akhtar and the music has been given by A.R.Rahman. Chamki is also going to be the costliest project of Shyam Benegal so far.