Kareena replaces Ash in Madhur’s ‘Heroine’

Spicezee Bureau

Mumbai: The much talked about project has finally found a lead. Kareena Kapoor has agreed to replace Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in Madhur Bhandarkar’s ambitious project ‘Heroine’. The film which was launched amidst the press at this year’s Cannes film festival was supposed to star Aishwarya in the lead role along with Arjun Rampal and Arunoday Singh Singh. Soon after, news of Aishwarya’s pregnancy spread like wild fire. While Aishwarya was confident of shooting for the film in a start to finish schedule, Madhur decided to drop her from the film as he was unsure of having a pregnant actress in his film. Since then many names have cropped up as suitable replacement for Ash. Finally Kareena has agreed to step into Ash’s shoes. On Monday, UTV`s CEO Siddharth Roy Kapur and the writer of the film, Niranjan Iyengar flew down to Hyderabad to meet Kareena who had been spending some time with her boyfriend Saif Ali Khan who was shooting at the Ramoji Rao Film City there. According to sources, the producers and the writer meeting with the actress proved to be quite fruitful. While Kareena has given her nod to the project, she has put in some conditions. Speaking to a daily, a source revealed, “Kareena has consented to the snorting, drinking and smoking scenes. Earlier, she had strong reservations against them. Now, she just doesn`t want to do the explicit lovemaking scenes with Arjun Rampal and Sudhir Mishra`s discovery Arunoday Singh. Those scenes are extremely sexy and Kareena is just not comfortable doing them.” Now, convincing Madhur Bhandarkar to make amends in the script may be a challenge. But both the producer as well as the writer is ready to take up the challenge. Madhur remained unavailable for comments but a source close to the film informed a daily, "Iyengar is very close to Kareena. He knew that this time he would be able to convince her. Both Kapoor and Iyengar were very happy after the meeting. They were beaming. Madhur too was happy to learn that Kareena has agreed to do the film." Interestingly, Kareena was Madhur’s first choice for the film. But Bebo had shown reluctance back then as she felt the script was too bold for her. "What can be better than getting your first choice back in the project?" quipped the source Both Kareena and Bhandarkar remained unavailable for comment.