"I was at Puri Jagannath's place and he was auditioning girls for a Telugu film. I was taken aback when I saw Nathalia. And I thought of casting her in my film," Verma told reporters.
"Actually, we wanted Sunny Leone first, but Pooja Bhatt had problem releasing her as she wanted to unveil her with 'Jism 2'. So, I asked Nathalia to do the song. So, I did not invent Nathalia, Pooja Bhatt invented her," he added.
Directed by Verma, "Department" is a cop drama and features Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt and Rana Daggubati.
Item songs have become a rage in B-town and Verma is making every effort to promote Nathalia's item number "Dan dan dan".
"The idea of promoting Nathalia is to promote the song. No film is eventually made with the purpose to promote certain actor...'Dan dan dan' is the first song that I am promoting after 'Khallas'. Like I said, item song has become face of the film. Item song and Nathalia's promotion go hand-in-hand."