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Not Nargis Fakhri, this actress was Imtiaz Ali's first choice opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Rockstar, she was dropped because...
Before casting Nargis Fakhri in Rockstar, Imtiaz Ali had approached Diana Penty for Ranbir Kapoor's Rockstar, but dropped her after a few workshops. The filmmaker later suggested her name for Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone-starrer Cocktail, which marked her acting debut.
Updated : Jun 21, 2025, 09:30 AM IST | Edited by : Aman Wadhwa
 "Ranbir Kapoor and Nargis Fakhri in Rockstar")
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Helmed by Imtiaz Ali, the 2011 romantic musical drama Rockstar starred Ranbir Kapoor and Nargis Fakhri in the leading roles. Though the film opened to polarising reviews, it has gained a cult following over the years. Rockstar is often considered as Ranbir's best performance and its album by AR Rahman, Irshad Kamil, and Mohit Chauhan is counted among the greatest soundtracks in the history of Indian film music. Rockstar marked the acting debut of Nargis, but she wasn't Imtiaz Ali's first choice for the film. The filmmaker had first approached Diana Penty for the film, but dropped her after two-three weeks of workshops.
In a recent interview with Hauterrfly, Diana recalled, "I was in New York, modelling, and I got a call from my agency. They told me Imtiaz Ali was looking for a new girl for his film Rockstar and that I must meet him. Films were never on my radar, and I had never taken formal training in acting. I never had the confidence that I could be an actor one day. I never believed that I would ever be able to pull it off. So I flew back for the meeting. At the first meeting, I was like, ‘Wow, he is such a nice person.'"
The actress added that when Imtiaz explained the role to her, she told him that since she didn't had any acting background, she wasn't sure if would be able to do justice to the character. Still, the Jab We Met director insisted on her attending workshops. After 2–3 weeks he said, ‘Look, I can see you have come a long way and I’ve seen a lot of improvement, but I still don’t feel you are ready to play the character in Rockstar. Maybe it is too soon for you.’ He was also going to shoot it in a month or so, and felt that I wasn’t ready at the time. I was kind of relieved because I didn’t feel confident. So I went back to New York and continued with my modelling."
An year later, Imtiaz Ali suggested Diana's name to the producer Dinesh Vijan for Cocktail, the film he had written. The 2012 romantic comedy, directed by Homi Adajania and also starring Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone in the leading roles, marked her entry into Bollywood. Penty's latest film Detective Sherdil, headlined by Diljit Dosanjh, premiered on Z5 on June 20.
