It is confirmed by her publicist that Bipasha Basu has joined the cast of Raavan, which stars Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Govinda, south star Vikram and Nikhil Dwivedi. The dusky actress will be playing Abhishek’s (Raavan) wife Mandodari and will join the cast in the end of September. In mythology Mandodari was the Lankan’s king’s favourite wife! The film is presently being shot at Malshej Ghat near Pune.

Reportedly, Sushmita Sen and Shilpa Shetty had turned down the offer by director Mani Ratnam. Interestingly some not- so-big names were also considered for this part, like model-turned-actor Sheetal Menon. The dusky actress was almost finalised for the part but Mani Ratnam decided to go in for a bigger name and Basu stepped in. The other actresses who also auditioned for the part were Shweta Salve, Gauhar Khan and Tupur Chatterjee. But the actresses need not fret. Raavan is scheduled to be complete by November 6 and release sometime next year.