Actor Sonam Kapoor, who has played the quintessential romantic heroine in most of her films to date, is ready to don the romantic mantle again with Mausam, a film directed by veteran actor Pankaj Kapur and co-starring his son Shahid Kapoor. out and out love story, Sonam, 25, says that Mausam has raised her expectation of her ideal man. “It has raised the bar. I have read every romantic novel ever written so that has already raised the bar. So all boys have to read at least one romantic novel or classic and then come to me,” she says. The actor, who plays Shahid Kapoor’s love interest in the film, elaborates: “There are so many novels written about these stories. I think waiting is very romantic. Aaj kal kaun karta hai?” she asks. So, what is it about the September 16 release that raised the bar for her? “We are used to new age commercial films, so I feel that romance is kind of lost. And this is a very romantic film. There is not too much conflict and the conflict that is there is all external. The story takes place 10-15 years ago, when there were no mobile phones. So, we could communicate only that much ... But I love the whole quaintness of it.”

‘Shahid was well behaved’ Talking about Shahid, Sonam says that her Mausam co-star was well behaved on the sets as his father was always around. “Shahid is amazing. Also, his dad was around so he was quite well behaved,” she quips, adding, “But he likes to pull my leg all the time. I think that's a given with all my heroes. They think it’s the best thing in the world to make fun of me...and I am not trying to constantly flirt with them,” she says. The actor gave two years to the film, and had to lose and gain weight as per the film’s changing seasons.

Director’s actor Sonam says, unlike popular perception of  Pankaj Kapur being a hard task master, she finds him “very sweet”. “He is a lovely person. He was very sweet to me. I have worked with a lot of taskmasters so working with him was like a cakewalk. Even after being in the industry for so many years, he is very idealistic, correct about everything."