Kareena's new career plan

With the signing of a film each with Dev Benegal and Rohit Shetty, Kareena Kapoor Khan has embarked on a new phase in her career. It's time for the very beautiful actress to re-invent her career. And with the signing of Dev Benegal's Bombay Samurai, Kareena has finally opened the doors to avante -grade directors.

Says a close friend, "Though she has done out-of-the-box films like Sudhir Mishra's Chameli and Govind Nihalani's Dev, Kareena has largely shied away from unconventional films. Aanand Rai was very keen to cast her in Raanjhanaa. But she got cold feet."

Aanand Rai admits he was keen on Kareena at one point for Raanjhanna. "But she just did't seem interested. I don't think she knew about me. Once I zeroed in on Sonam, it was Sonam all the way."

Another director desperately desirous of working with Kareena was, and is, Sudhir Mishra. Two years ago he wanted to cast her with Farhan Akhtar in a desi Rajasthan-based adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Like many other Bollywood attempts to adapt Hamlet, Dhruv too fell by the wayside largely because of Kareena's indecisiveness regarding an unconventional director.

Kareena had said to me, "I'd love to work with Sudhir Mishra again after Chameli. But if I do another film it can't be Hamlet which is way too dark and edgy. I want to do a masala film opposite Farhan."

While the Farhan-Kareena pair is finally happening with Dev Benegal's film, projects with Sudhir Mishra and Aanand Rai are also being discreetly discussed.

Yes, Mrs. Khan is in the mood to sink her teeth into meaty roles. Dibakar Bannerjee is also likely to cast her.

But hang on. Kareena is not giving up the commercial masala stuff. No way! She has just given the nod to Rohit Shetty's Singham 2. But only after he re-wrote the role to suit her star status.

Says Kareena, "As a commercial actress I've done it all. Now I'd like to balance out the more massy stuff with something more unconventional. I would like to work with Aanand Rai, Sudhir Mishra, Dibakar Bannerjee and Rakeysh Mehra. And I'm working towards it."

Kareena's new career plan