‘Aisha’ fame female actor Sonam Kapoor has grabbed the role of a Benarasi girl who comes to Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus to study. Title of the movie is ‘Raanjhanaa’ and the male lead opposite her will be played ‘Kolaveri Guy’, actor Dhanush.
This decision was communicated to the media after the director Aanand L.Rai of ‘Tanu Weds Manu’ fame convinced Sonam about the role.As per the script, Dhanush plays a local Varanasi boy, and Sonam essays a Varanasi girl educated in Delhi. To make the character look real on screen Sonam has planned a visit to Vasnathkunj area where the JNU campus is located. She will spend time with students and teachers to get a hang of things that happen there.
Dhanush is also preparing hard to look like a benarasi lad. He needs to brush up his Hindi because people in Varanasi do not speak Tamil or English. Dhanush is quick to hire a Hindi tutor.
Lot of ground work needs to be done to change Benarasi girl’s character to suit Sonam’s heavily western persona. The ‘Raanjhanaa’ team has decided to focus more on her life in Delhi than life in Benaras. In the beginning director Anand Rai was not sure about Sonam doing this role as he believed it would be very challenging task for her to pull off the role of rustic girl. But his team is convinced that with certain tweaks in character’s background Sonam will do justice to the role.
Expressing satisfaction over the development director said, “I am bowled over by her commitment to get the nuances of the role right. I’ve found my lady.”
