The makers of Sudeep's Phantom are looking for a female lead, and buzz is that they are planning to approach Samantha Akkineni. If it happens, this will mark her debut in Kannada. The film, helmed by Anup Bhandari, is produced by Manjunath Gowda. 

It may be recalled that Samantha and Sudeep had previously worked together in  Eega (Naan Ee), the Tamil-Telugu fantasy drama directed by SS Rajamouli and co-starring Nani.

Although Samantha has not acted in any Kannada films till now, she was part of U-Turn's remake. The Tamil-Telugu bilingual film was directed by Pawan Kumar, who also helmed the original.