Tom Cruise and Salma Hayek to Shoot in Jaipur

Rajasthan's forts were bracing for Hollywood in February 2011. The Times of India reported that two big productions were headed for the state: Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible 4, eyeing a Rajasthan schedule that spring, and a film called The Driver, set to bring Salma Hayek to Bikaner's Gajner Palace with Gulshan Grover playing her husband.

According to the report, Hayek's shoot was planned as a fortnight-long schedule in May, filming key sequences between her and Grover. The film was to be directed by Bill Duke. The report even carried the gossip: Hayek had initially been upset that Grover disclosed the Bikaner plan -- he was reportedly summoned to New York -- but all was sorted and the shoot would go ahead.

The Cruise schedule was looser. The unit was expected in the first week of April, the report said, though May dates were also discussed; Rajasthan's summer heat was the enemy, and final dates were still being worked out. An earlier plan to shoot in December had fallen through over the actors' dates, including Cruise's and Anil Kapoor's -- Kapoor had been cast in the film as Brij Nath.

What actually happened is a familiar Hollywood-in-India story. Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol did film in India -- Mumbai and Bangalore are on the location list -- but the main cast never came: stunt doubles stood in for Cruise and company on the India schedule. Cruise's real India trip came that December, a two-day promotional visit with Anil Kapoor that included the Taj Mahal. The Rajasthan shoot, as announced that February, never materialized.