The 10 Most MISCAST Actors in the movies

Bollywood may be dictated by a rampant star system but casting is key to great filmmaking.

It could be a fantastic role in an extraordinary story but in the hands of a wrong actor, it's nothing more than a wasted opportunity, a hopeless mess.

On that note, let's take a look at some of the glaring cases of miscasting in recent times.

P:S: Feel free to bombard the message board with your picks.

Imran Khan, Once Upon A Time in Mumbai Dobaara

In his appeal lies his curse.

Imran Khan's inborn sweetness refuses to ease off for tough guy roles. Be it Kidnap, Luck, Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola and most recently in OUATIMD, the 30-year-old's attempt to play a bristly, badass gangster/anti-social element is plain comical.

I reiterate, no amount of facial hair can wipe off the vanilla from his essence.

Comparisons to Donald Duck's pout aside, Nargis Fakhiri is an extremely attractive woman.

And until she opens her mouth to speak (in a terribly dubbed voice), director Imtiaz Ali almost fools you into believing she's the perfect Heer for Ranbir Kapoor in Rockstar.

But the latter's killer delivery and her own inadequacies busts the myth leading you to wonder what wonders a Manisha Koirala from the 1990s would have done in the same role.

Considering a suave Saif Ali Khan could pull off the most boorish, coarse, rural goon to deliver his career-best in Omkara, Homi Adjania's Cocktail, where he plays his usual humorous, hep self should be a cake walk.

But it's not the role, it's SAK who doesn't work.

While he'd easily look the part if Cocktail released soon after Salaam Namaste but by 2012 the actor seems like a long passed-out alumni partying with sophomores.

Dibakar Banerjee's Shanghai deserved all the acclaim cast in its direction.

Oddly if on one hand, Emraan Hashmi gains credibility with his incredible display of vulnerability, Kalki Koechlin makes for a rather pale representation of the crusading Shalini.

Someone with more fortitude and intensity would seem ideal to strike out Shanghai's only sore point.

The Dirty Picture's strength lies in its bombastic, tongue-in-cheek tone.

While Vidya Balan embodies it, Naseeruddin Shah has fun with it and Emraan Hashmi is at least familiar with it, Tusshar Kapoor's rickety screen presence and silly moustache struggles to make head or tails with the same.

Moreover, the man is just not cut out for those pulpy Rajat Arora lines. He should stick to the incomprehensible babbling of Golmaal franchise.

Prakash Jha's political potboiler had no problems hitting box office jackpot but that doesn't excuse Katrina Kaif's awkward casting.

She's pretty, agreed. She's sincere, agreed. But is she actually right for the role? I don't think so.

In a production, crammed with acting heavyweights, I'd appreciate to see an 'actress' like Swara Bhaskar reciprocating with as good as she gets in place of a spiritless stunner.

John Abraham and Abhishek Bachchan aren't the best actors in Bollywood. But they surely worked up a droll chemistry to keep Dostana up and about.

The mandatory other guy on the scene -- Bobby Deol -- is so irredeemably tacky, bumbling and WRONG for a role screaming for the star power, poise and smarts of a Shah Rukh Khan.

Abhishek Bachchan is a super hero who dresses up in a fancier version of the sherwarni sporting a beard that needs to go and hair that needs to be trimmed. And super powers that I don't quite recollect.

Hard to imagine anyone would excel in that sort of description but AB junior's obvious discomfort and complete lack of dynamism and humour, unlike his feisty costar Priyanka Chopra, to even enjoy this tomfoolery hurts Drona big time.

The obvious alternative is colleague Hrithik Roshan.

She's a mighty confident actress. Only Vidya Balan's acumen is not just wasted, it's incompatible with the sensibilities of Sajid Khan's comedy, Heyy Babyy.

She looks completely out of place in her ill-fitting wardrobe and silly hairdo as the rich, glamorous young mom in a role that's better suited for the chirpy gals like Genelia D'Souza or Asin.

It's important to dissociate an actor's actual personality from the character he portrays.

When Om Puri played Emperor Ashoka in Shyam Benegal's epic television series, Bharat Ek Khoj, his simmering intensity and believable remorse injected life in a significant chapter of history. But Shah Rukh Khan simply played an extension of his best-known screen avatars in Asoka.

Now imagine, an Irrfan Khan, Abhay Deol or Ranbir Kapoor working their artistry in that same underdeveloped script.