Priya Gupta (BOMBAY TIMES; April 7, 2014)

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s dream project Bajirao Mastani, a historical love story that has been close to Sanjay’s heart for the past 10 years, has finally found its Bajirao and Mastani. The hit jodi and real life couple Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone will play Bajirao and Mastani, respectively. Both Karan Johar and Sanjay Leela Bhansali have announced their films Shhuddhi and Bajirao Mastani, respectively for a December 2015 release. We have heard that both are great scripts, which require a fair amount of time from its actors for shooting and marketing and thus, Deepika needed to make her choice between the two.

 Deepika had earlier been confirmed for Shhuddhi but we guess that her love for Sanjay Leela Bhansali as a director and the time she would get to spend with Ranveer may be amongst the reasons for making this difficult choice. While Deepika and Sanjay remained unavailable for comment, we can safely say that the cast of Bajirao Mastani is a first grand step by Sanjay towards achieving his dream. 
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Vickey Lalwani (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 7, 2014)

Sanjay Leela Bhansali had recently fired a salvo at Karan Johar by announcing that his Bajirao Mastani will hit theatres on December 25, 2015, the same day on which Shhuddhi will open at the turnstiles. The impending clash intensified after Ranveer Singh picked Bhansali’s magnum opus over KJo’s flick, despite being the top contender to play the male lead in both the films. Now the actor’s Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-leela co-star and real life love interest Deepika Padukone has followed him to Camp Bhansali. The actress, also reportedly Johar’s pick to play the female lead in Shuddhi, has signed up to essay Mastani’s part. A friend of Bhansali confirmed the news to Mirror yesterday, saying, “Deepika is looking forward to shooting with Bhansali and Ranveer again. Her last stint with the duo (Ram-Leela) got her plenty of accolades that she will not forget in a long time,” Buzz is, Deepika has given a large chunk of her dates to Bhansali as the filmmaker likes to shoot over long schedules. While the Shhuddhi cast has not yet been announced, Bhansali finally has both his Bajirao and Mastani.