By DC Correspondent

Copyright deccanchronicle

Deepika Padukone’s next big-ticket outing may not be as central as fans expect. The actor, currently filming Shah Rukh Khan’s King, is set to join Atlee’s ambitious fantasy action project with Allu Arjun, tentatively titled AA22 x AA6. Sources confirm Deepika is one of six female leads in the film, but her role is closer to a cameo. The story, revolving around parallel universes and time travel, sees Allu Arjun in multiple avatars, with each female star—including Deepika, Mrunal Thakur, Janhvi Kapoor, and Rashmika Mandanna—paired with a different version of him. “There is no single heroine. Deepika has a powerful part but not the central lead,” a source revealed. The female actors largely appear separately at different junctures, with Deepika portraying a warrior queen whose screen time is far less than Allu Arjun’s. She is scheduled for 100 days of shooting but will work around 7 hours a day, balancing travel and demanding action sequences. Deepika had previously opted out of Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Spirit and more recently from Kalki 2898 AD 2, with speculation pointing to scheduling and role size as factors. Ironically, it was said that her roles in Spirit and Kalki were also written as extended cameos—one of the very reasons for her exits.