MUMBAI: The self-effacing AR Murugadoss, who directed Aamir Khan in Ghajini, has now been signed on to direct Salman Khan in producer Sajid Nadiadwala's next action-romance Kick, a remake of the 2009 Telugu film directed by Surender Reddy, starring Ravi Teja.

What comes as a surprise is that Deepika Padukone, who has till now been close to the Shah Rukh-Farah Khan-Karan Johar group, will star opposite Salman in the film. Although Deepika has just wrapped up Houseful with Sajid Nadiadwala, he was hesitant when he approached her for Kick wondering if she would have any reservations about working with Salman. According to reliable sources, Deepika made it very clear to Nadiadwala that she is open to working with every actor.

Nadiadwala doesn't deny the presence of Murugadoss and Deepika in the Hindi remake of Kick. “Murugadoss I've met and Deepika of course is already my leading lady in Houseful. I loved Murugadoss's work in Ghajini and so did Salman. We were very clear about not getting the original Telugu director as I don't believe in letting the South Indian directors do the Hindi remakes,” he says.

The challenge now is to make Salman's action sequences in Kick different not only from Ghajini but also Wanted. Nadiadwala says, “I don't want Kick to look like Wanted 2. We'll be shooting the action scenes in Tokyo.”

Salman will be doing a lot of martial arts and kick-boxing in Kick and Murugadoss wants to make sure the action quotient in his next film is on par with the action sequences in Ghajini.

Sajid has roped in the Munnabhai writer Abhijat Joshi to script the Hindi adaptation of Kick. “He lives in the US but is expected to be in India during the release of 3 Idiots (co-written by him). That's when we will lock in on the script,” adds Nadiadwala.