Ajay Devgn, Emran Hashmi and Kangna Ranaut have had a scintillating presence in Milan Lutharia’s box-office buster ‘Once Upon a Time in Mumbai’, a film loosely based on the life of gangster ‘Haji Mastan’ who dies at the end of the film, giving way to the rise of ‘Dawood Ibrahim’. The second edition of the film will approach from where it ended but Emran will not feature in his previous role or for that matter he is not in the film.

Akshay Kumar has taken over the Hashmi’s character and the reports are that Sonakshi Sinha will play the love interest of Akshay in the film. The Dabangg girl will play the character of ‘Mandakini’, the love interest of Dawood in the film.

Earlier, it was said that Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone or Kareena Kapoor would play the character of ‘Mandakini’ but Milan seems to have zeroed on Sonakshi for her successful Dabangg debut.

A source was quoted in Mumbai Mirror as saying, “Ekta Kapoor and Milan Luthria are taking their time to choose the leading lady for ‘Once Upon a Time in Mumbai’ 2. They want the girl to be perfect. Initially, they wanted a leading lady to essay the role of Mandakini. But now, they are considering Sonakshi Sinha.”

Sonakshi who is working with Akshay in another film ‘Joker’ seems working in the favor of the actress, “Akshay and Sonakshi are already doing Shirish Kunder’s Joker and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Rowdy Rathod to be directed by Prabhudeva together. Ekta and Milan will obviously keep that in mind while making their choice,” added the source.

So far the casting a part from Akshay isn’t final as yet, the director is looking for a parallel hero for the film, “They are still looking for the parallel hero in the film. Once the second actor is finalised, Ekta and Milan will take a call on who will play the leading lady,” said the source.