Daijiworld Media Network - Entertainment

Mumbai, Sep 30: Madamiyaan Shruti Haasan who was rumoured to have been cast as the female lead for the third instalment of the Hera Pheri series has now confirmed that she will not be cast opposite Abhishek B.

Spokesperson for the Welcome Back actress informed the media that, "Shruti Haasan was approached for 'Hera Pheri 3', but due to her date commitments to her two southern films and her soon to be announced Hindi project, she could not go through with it. She does hope to work with Abhishek Bachchan in the future." The Gabbar is back actress was said to have been part of the cast that had Akshay Kumar, Suneil Shetty and Paresh Rawal in hilarious roles for both Hera Pheri and Phir Hera Pheri.

Shruti's plate however is overflowing with two Bollywood films -- "Rocky Handsome" that is being directed by Nishikant Kamat's and "Yaara" by Tigmanshu Dhulia apart from three other South films, which are "Puli" opposite Vijay, "Vedalam" opposite Ajith and "Singam 3" opposite Suriya in Tamil. Her packed schedule did not leave any room for the actress to accept another project for the foreseeable future.

Tabu was the female lead in the first one and Bipasha was the female lead in the second. Directed by Niraj Vohra, the movie's cast includes Paresh Rawal, Suneil Shetty, Esha Gupta, Neha Sharma, Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham. Abhishek is reported to be busy completing his shoot for the movie Housefull 3 with Askhay and Reitesh. John Abraham on the other hand is said to be on set for the movies Dishoom and Force 2. the two actors had given a super hit movie with Dostana opposite Priyanka Chopra and given that their chemistry and comic timing seem to fit, expectations are running high for Hera Pheri 3 as well.