It was one casting coup waiting to happen but that hasn't been the case to be. For the 'Vote Aapke Haath Mein Hai' campaign produced by Karan Johar for Dharma Productions, John Abraham, Bipasha Basu and Katrina Kaif were the chosen ones (amongst a dozen odd other youth icons) to participate in a specially created video. However, at the last moment, the trio couldn't be a part of the video for different reasons and director Tarun Mansukhani had to contend with other actors.

"That's true. Earlier on John Abraham and Bipasha Basu were all set to be a part of this video that has been created to spread awareness around voting for our Government this election season. Even Katrina Kaif was finalised but in the final scheme of things, we had to shoot the video without the three of them. Such a pity", exclaims Tarun Mansukhani who has made a drastic shift from a colourful 'Dostana' to his recent campaign that has been shot in all Black & White.

The video now stars Abhishek Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor, Imran Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone, Asin, Ritiesh Deshmukh, Farhan Akhtar, Sonam Kapoor and Karan Johar himself.

So what really went wrong? What was the real reason behind John, Bipasha and Katrina opting out of 'Vote Aapke Haath Mein Hai' which is written by Niranjan Iyengar, the man who has written dialogues Karan Johar films like 'Kal Ho Naa Ho' and 'Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna'?

"If you are searching for any controversies then there aren't any. In fact it wasn't even the matter of anyone opting out", Tarun is quick to react, "All three were quite sweet and were game to shoot for the video. But then on the day of the shoot, John and Katrina were not in the town due to which we had to go ahead without them."

How about Bipasha?

"Well, her 'Aa Dekhen Zara' was being released on the same day when we had to shoot for the video. Other than that, she was also a little hassled due to the multiplex issue. 'Aa Dekhen Zara' was engulfed in this situation where no one was sure if it would eventually see an all India multiplex release or not. It was all right if Bipasha couldn't shoot for the video in such a scenario."

Though there have been accusations that his video, which carries the punch line of ‘Kuch Nahi Ho Sakta’, is an out-and-out copy of Hollywood's ‘Don't Vote’ commercial featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Forest Whitaker, Dustin Hoffman, Ellen DeGeneres, Jennifer Aniston, Ashton Kutcher and will. i. am amongst others, Tarun is completely unperturbed.

"I haven't even seen the 'Don't Vote' campaign and I don't want to worry about that. The point at the end of the day is that the video has been liked and more than that the message is being rightly passed on to the youth. All celebrities coming together for this cause has helped create a great awareness around our right to vote and that's what that matters at the end of the day", declares Tarun. -Sampurn Media