Dinesh Kamath's column on Madhur Bhandarkar's film 'Heroine' that was published in Newsband

Heroine is an Indian film directed, written, and co-produced by Madhur Bhandarkar. Revolving around the life of a once successful film actress, Mahi Arora, whose career is on the decline, the film features Kareena Kapoor as the protagonist along with actors Arjun Rampal, Randeep Hooda and Rakesh Bapat. Additionally, the project also stars Shahana Goswami, Divya Dutta, Helen, Shillpi Sharma, Mugdha Godse and Lillete Dubey in supporting roles. The film has screenplay by Anuraadha Tewari and Manoj Tyagi, story by Madhur Bhandarkar, music by Salim-Sulaiman, cinematography by Mahesh Limaye and editing by Deven Murudeshwar.

Heroine is to be released on 21 September 2012.

Now I’ll tell you something about the cast:

    * Kareena Kapoor as Mahi Arora: Originally the first choice for her role, Kapoor was hesitant to take on the project when Bhandarkar approached her with the film's brief initial idea. She explained reservations about the criticism her character might evoke as well as the intimate sequences with several of her co-stars, and was subsequently replaced by Aishwarya Rai. Several days after production began, Rai left the film due to her pregnancy, and Bhandarkar re-approached Kapoor with the film. Once the director reinforced his faith in her, she agreed to do the film when she was handed the completed script. Prior to being cast in Heroine, Bhandarkar had approached Kapoor with Page 3 (2005) and Fashion (2008), both of which she could not do due to prior commitments. Kapoor, who described her character as being "bipolar and schizophrenic", refrained from taking on any other projects as she found Heroine to be "very aggressive and tiring".

    * Arjun Rampal as Aryan Khanna: Bhandarkar, who was keen on casting a well-known actor to essay the lead male protagonist, approached Rampal in May 2011. His character is described as a superstar with "grey shades who adds twists and turns to the story". In an interview with Mid Day, Rampal explained that he did not want to model his character on a certain individual, but rather borrow various traits from different people.

    * Randeep Hooda as Angad Paul: Hooda was cast by the director to essay the role of a cricketer. Prior to the start of principal photography, actor Arunoday Singh was chosen to play the role, but was later dropped from the film due to unknown reasons. Media reports began speculating the name of several actors (such as Ranbir Kapoor, Imran Khan and Prateik Babbar) though Bhandarkar later confirmed that he had selected Hooda after seeing his performance in Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster (2011). As a way to make his character more believable, Hooda began taking tips and lessons from cricketer Virender Sehwag.

    * Rakesh Bapat: Bapat was cast in November 2011 to play "one of [Kapoor's] lovers". The director announced that Bapat's character would be kept under wraps along with a few other characters such as that of Goswami's and Dutta's.

    * Shahana Goswami: Goswami was selected to play an important character in the film.

    * Divya Dutta: Along with Goswami, Dutta was also selected to play an important character in the film.

    * Mugdha Godse: Godse was roped in to play the character of a rival heroine who is jealous of Mahi Arora's success.

    * Helen: Helen was cast by the director to essay the role of a senior actress.

    * Shillpi Sharma: Sharma, who described Bhandarkar as "a family friend" was approached by the director to play a glamorous role. In preparation for the role, Sharma was required to lose weight and sign a non-disclosure agreement.

    * Lillete Dubey: Dubey was cast by the director to essay the role of Kapoor's mother.

    * Ranvir Shorey: Described as the director's "lucky mascot", Shorey was roped in to make a cameo appearance.

Following the completion of his film, Jail (2009), Bhandarkar began toying with the idea of making a project on the film industry. Along with writer Niranjan Iyengar, the director began developing the story about the life of an actress and later approached UTV Motion Pictures with whom he had worked on several occasions. Bhandarkar was keen on using the title Heroine for his film. He had been subconsciously preparing for the movie ever since he joined the industry.

Though speculated to be based on the lives of yesteryear divas like Madhubala and Marilyn Monroe, Bhandarkar denied the reports saying that the movie is a "contemporary film which reveals the underbelly of the movie industry and its well-kept secrets". In an attempt to prepare his protagonist for the film, the director prepared a three-hour documentary on Hollywood actresses Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Ava Gardner and Vivien Leigh. Designer Manish Malhotra was signed on to design the costumes.

The first look of the movie was released as part of the 64th Cannes Film Festival. A promotional poster was released during a press conference in which Ronnie Screwvala of UTV Motion Pictures, Madhur Bhandarkar, and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan officially announced the movie. The movie is a glamorous yet bold story of the internal journey of a superstar. It will certainly appeal to audiences across the globe. With Heroine, the producers of the film have planned to take things to the next level. The entire idea in the film is a result of Bhandarkar's conceptualization. The film is based on the life and times of a superstar heroine, Mahi from the dream factory we call 'Bollywood'. The film is a daring, shocking, glamorous, scandalous behind-the-scenes account of the reality behind the world of glitz and glamour that our film stars inhabit. For a country obsessed with films and film stars, Heroine will take audiences on a voyeuristic journey to see what really goes on in the lives of India's sweethearts.

The Central Board of Film Certification awarded an 'A' certificate to the trailer but chopped off Kapoor's smoking scenes and lovemaking scenes from the trailer. On July 22, 2012, two of the first look posters were revealed on the micro blogging site, Twitter, and received an amazing response in just 8 hours. The trailer crossed over a million hits on Youtube within 2 days.

After the release of the trailer, a controversy arose. In the film’s promo a dialogue of Kareena Kapoor: “If a heroine buys a car, it’s gifted to her by a businessman. If she goes to LA (Los Angeles), she’s getting plastic surgery done and, god forbid, if she goes to Dubai, you people make a rate card for her,” was not appreciated by the people of Dubai. To avoid hurting sentiments, Director Madhur Bhandarkar has had the offending statement censored in the Dubai version.

Music director duo Salim-Sulaiman, who had earlier worked with Madhur Bhandarkar in his critically acclaimed movie Fashion, will be composing the songs for Heroine. There are two big item numbers in the film, both to be picturized on the leading lady. One of them being called Halkat Jawani sung by Sunidhi Chauhan. Musicperk.com rated the album 7/10 quoting "Although songs like Halkat Jawani, Khwahishein and Tujhpe fida sound nice and enthusiastic as independent tracks, others probably would need to rely on the picturisation of the song for the required effect to be created".

Thus the film has songs like Halkat Jawani sung by Sunidhi Chauhan, Tujhpe Fida by Benny Dayal, Shradha Pandit, Khwahishein by Shreya Ghoshal, Saiyaan by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Main Heroine Hoon by Aditi Singh Sharma.

Thus Heroine is a great film. Do watch it. Don’t miss it.