Shekhar Kapur ropes in the actor for his longstanding project 'Paani'

Shekhar Kapur's ambitious project Paani has remained in limbo since quite a while now. The latest buzz is that Kapur has replaced lead actor of the film Hrithik Roshan with Ranbir Kapoor.

Our source says, "Shekhar had gone to Rajasthan where Ranbir was shooting for Ayaan Mukherji's next with Deepika Padukone to pitch a fantasy film to the actor called Mantra. But since the script of the film was not even ready, Ranbir rejected the offer."

However, when Ranbir expressed his interest in hearing the script of Paani, the filmmaker after discussing it at length with him in turn offered him the lead role.

Apparently, originally Vivek Oberoi was slated to play the lead role in the film. While Hrithik Roshan and Ranbir Kapoor were unavailable for comment, Shekhar replied to our text message saying, "Not true."