Throwback: Do You Who Were The Heroines Of 'Pokiri' Before Ileana?

'Pokiri' is one of the biggest hits in the history of Tollywood. This is the film that took Mahesh Babu to the next level. He became a superstar after that film and Puri Jagannadh became the top director. It was Ileana's second film after 'Devadas' and her beauty in this film brought her a lot of fans. She was the most sought after heroine in the industry for the next few years. It is safe to say that all of Ileana's stardom was because of 'Pokiri'. But sources say that she is not the first choice for the female lead's role.

Before selecting Ileana, Puri & his team reportedly considered two heroines for this role. While the first one is Parvathy Melton, the other girl is none other than the current Bollywood top heroine Deepika Padukone. As per grapevine, Puri wanted to cast Deepika Padukone for the role. She was not famous at that time as she 'Om Shanti Om' released in 2007 and 'Pokiri' was released in 2006. But sources say that Mahesh was not impressed with Deepika while Puri did not show interest in Parvathy Melton who later did films like 'Vennela', 'Jalsa', and others.

Finally, both of them made a decision and roped in Ileana to play the role of 'Shruti' and the rest is history.