National Award-winning actor Keerty Suresh was all set to make her Bollywood debut opposite Ajay Devgn in Maidaan. The film is being directed by Amit Sharma of Badhaai Ho fame and produced by Boney Kapoor. Maidaan is a biopic based on the life of India's legendary football coach Syed Abdul Rahim. The film went on floors last year in August and the shooting has been taking place in intervals.

Now as per reports in PTI, Keerty has opted out of the project and is replaced by Priyamani. Talking about the reason behind this, a source told the media agency, "Keerthy shot for the film for a day. After the shoot, the makers and Keerthy both felt that she looked too young as she had lost a lot of weight since being signed for the film to authentically portray the role of a mother as has been written in the script."

Keerthy was all set to play the role of a mother, however, due to her 'too young' looks, the makers decided to part ways with her mutually and rope in Priyamani as the female lead.

Meanwhile, talking about Ajay being a part of Maidaan, Boney earlier told Indian Express, "An actor like Ajay is most apt for essaying this character. We hope that the film inspires millions of youngsters and soon India plays in the World Cup and becomes a potent force in World Football."

He added, "It’s amazing to see football, world’s biggest game, having such a fever in India, and yet our team is not being sent to important tournaments."