Kareena Kapoor is tired of comparisons. The Bollywood star insists Heroine is not another The Dirty Picture (2011): “Vidya (Balan) did a fantastic job and I don’t like clarifying rumours, but I have to assert that there are absolutely no similarities between the two films. Silk was an item girl while my character, Mahhi Khanna, is a heroine,” she points out, adding that while Milan Luthria’s superhit period drama was set in the South Indian film industry of the 1980s, Madhur Bhandarkar’s movie is here and now, rooted in the Hindi film industry.

Kareena was the first choice for Heroine, but the super busy actor had to opt out over date issues. Madhur then announced the film with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan at the Cannes Film Festival last year, and on their return to Mumbai, set the film rolling. However, after Aishwarya’s pregnancy came to light, the project was stalled for a few months till Kareena returned to it. Certain changes were made in the script and Heroine was restarted on November 30 last year.

After 11 days of work, Kareena took off on a much-needed annual vacation with beau Saif Ali Khan to their regular place in Switzerland for 20 days in December. “We’ve got 80 days more to go before we wrap up the film and there’s so much more to come,” she says, adding that the first promo that UTV has cut featuring her, which was unveiled recently to the press, is quite cool.

“Madhur is a National Award-winning writer-director, his films are not your usual Bollywood fare but exciting and unconventional. Heroine too is a journey revolving around a star’s personal and professional life that you’ve never seen on screen before but would want to.”