Yes, you read that right. Priyanka Chopra's role of the spouse murderer seven times over in Vishal Bhardwaj's Saat Khoon Maaf was originally to be played by, believe it or not, Hrithik Roshan.

However, when things didn't work out between Roshan and Bhardwaj, who had rewritten Ruskin Bond's original story, Susanna's Seven Husbands, specifically to accommodate a male character as lead, went back to the original story and decided to cast his favourite actress, Chopra, as lead.

Chopra, who will share screen space with Roshan in Karan Johar's remake of Agneepath, must be happy that "things didn't work out between Vishal and Hrithik".

Says the source, "The two just didn't agree on the plot and characters. They parted ways with a 'maybe another time'.

Bhardwaj then quickly turned the screenplay back to its original format the way Ruskin Bond had written it and signed Priyanka. He prefers to work with female protagonists since the male stars have repeatedly given him grief. Sadly, the box office doesn't welcome women-oriented sagas."

That might change this month if Rajkumar Gupta's No One Killed Jessica (where Rani Mukherji and Vidya Balan are the 'heroes') and Saat Khoon Maaf (where Chopra weds, beds and kills seven husbands) are the hits they are expected to be.