Ever since Mamta Kulkarni bade goodbye to silver screen, Raj Kumar Santoshi has been in doldrums about his new item girl. Though he roped in Lara to do some 'Jadoo' but it was nothing like Mamta. All he needed was some sizzling hot bod, so the search continued.

Then one fine day Mahesh Bhatt, God bless him, chose to harness raw talent of Mallika Sherawat in 'Murder' and moment of revelation struck Santoshi. Thanks to Bhatt, he had finally found his muse.

Completely awestruck by her 'dedication' and 'hard work', Santoshi has offered her a lead role in his new film.

"Mallika is a talented girl. But what I like about her is she's very hard-working," he gushes.

According to him: "It's a heroine-centric romantic comedy to be directed by K Subhash. A friend of mine is producing it. I'll be the 'creative' consultant on the project. Mallika has given us two months at a stretch in October."

Sherawat, on the other hand, just can't stop smiling and very proud of her decision of just portraying the pivotal roles. You can get an idea of her tenacity by a mere fact that she blatantly refused to do an item number in Ketan Mehta's '1857: The Rising' despite the hefty sum being offered.

Mehta is not the only victim of this Kiss-Miss. The latest to bear the brunt is Mahesh Bhatt himself, her mentor and alleged crush. According to some reports, Mallika has refused Bhatt for his new venture ‘Zeher'.

Why?

"I simply did not like the script of Mahesh Bhatt's 'Zeher'," raves Sherawat.

Wow... now that's what we call an ATTITUDE!