From Guru Dutt to Kareena Kapoor, Bollywood has had a long history of 'misses' -- actors who shot for films and then dropped out for some reason or another, either creative differences, undisciplined behaviour or untimely deaths.

So, Akshay Kumar in "Barsaat" isn't the first instance of an actor dropping out of a film after having shot for it. Like Akshay, Kareena Kapoor shot for portions of Rakesh Roshan's "Kaho Na...Pyar Hai" before there arose "creative differences" with director Rakesh Roshan.

Kareena was out. Amisha was in. The rest was history. "I never actually think about it, because I got a perfect launch in 'Refugee'," says Kareena. "I guess... Amisha was destined to do the role."

Stranger still was the case of the Rajshri's "Uff ...Kya Jadoo Mohabbat Hai". Half the film was shot in Ooty with Sammir Dattani and Kajol's sister Tanisha before the Rajshris decided to chuck the leading lady, apparently because of her undisciplined behaviour.

A frantic search for an overnight replacement yielded Pooja Kanwal who flew down to Ooty and joined the unit within hours of the other actress' departure.

Recalls Sammir, "It was quite bizarre... redoing all those romantic lines and love songs a second time with another actress. I finally knew what déjà vu meant."

Sammir underwent a similar experience while shooting a Kannada film. "The leading lady vanished. But I had quite a lot of fun because there were lots of intimate romantic scenes to be redone," he chuckles.

Smita Patil and Parveen Babi were supposed to play the wife and other woman in Yash Chopra's "Silsila", until Yash Chopra thought of what he considered a casting coup. Overnight Jaya Bachchan and Rekha were signed for the two roles. The two actresses originally signed to play their roles were asked to leave from on-location in Kashmir -- unceremoniously!

Sometimes tragedy strikes a discordant note. Guru Dutt shot for nearly the whole of K. Asif's "Love & God" before he passed away. The entire film was re-shot with Sanjeev Kumar playing Qais to Nimmi's Laila.

When Smita Patil died without completing her dubbing for Sukhwinder Dhadda's "Waaris", Rekha graciously stepped in to do the needful. In the film, Smita's fiery performance 'spoke' through the other actress.

The untimely death of Divya Bharati led to panic among producers with incomplete films. Divya had already shot for nearly half of Raj Kanwar's "Kartavya" when she plunged to her death. Juhi Chawla was gracious enough to step in. But not without fuss from Dimple Kapadia who dropped out arguing she wouldn't look like the replacement actress' mom.

And what about poor Madhur Bhandarkar? Imagine his plight when his romantic lead Amit Rala in "Page 3" suddenly died of jaundice.

"Just imagine," Madhur shudders, "I had shot almost the whole film. Amit had combination shots with two dozen actors. I had to do them all over again with his replacement Jai Karla."

Sharmila Tagore was a thirteenth-hour replacement for Gulzar's "Namkeen". Rekha was shooting for the film when she threw a fit because she wanted a journalist, invited to visit the set by Waheeda Rehman, to be thrown out immediately (those days Rekha was constantly off-press). Gulzar Saab stood his ground. He threw Rekha out instead.

A similar thing happened during Gulzar's "Koshish" when the director scrapped sequences shot with Moushumi Chatterjee and brought Jaya Bhaduri in. Ram Gopal Varma had to do something like that when, after shooting with Rinke Khanna for Ajay Devgan's mistress' role in "Company", he realised the petite actress wasn't right for the part.

Manisha Koirala walked in and made the part her own.

One wonders what happened to the footage that Aishwarya Rai shot with Shah Rukh Khan for Aziz Mirza's "Chalte Chalte" before Salman Khan disrupted shooting, making way for Rani Mukherjee.

Maybe some day Shah Rukh can retrieve the scenes from the cans and use it for another film with Ash.