Filmmaker Mira Nair says actress Kate Hudson was her first choice to play Erica in "The Reluctant Fundamentalist".

"We really fell in love with each other. We hung out for hours, which is something I never do. And then we went through many others and Kate kept sending me love notes," Mira said in a statement.

Things did not work out between the filmmaker and actress in 2011 as Hudson was pregnant. But luckily, the production of the movie got delayed and by then, the actress was ready to work.

"Then we got delayed and the baby came and she was available. It was meant to be. By then, I had cast Riz (Ahmed)," added Mira, who finally made the film with Hudson.

Set around the post-9/11 period, the film is about a young man chasing corporate success on Wall Street and struggling between his American dream, a hostage crisis and the enduring call of his family's homeland.

Based on Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid's novel of the same name, the film, releasing in India May 3, also stars Liev Schrieber, Kiefer Sutherland, Shabana Azmi and Om