Chamki Chameli has everything in place. The director Shyam Benegal is all set to collaborate with his Zubeida team of music composer A R Rahman and lyricist Javed Akhtar in what promises to be the first fully-fledged musical spectacle since Chetan Anand's Heer Ranjha where Javed's father-in-law Kaifi Azmi had written every dialogue in verse.

Vaibhavi Merchant is supposed to choreograph Chamki in the desi big-screen adaptation of the Spanish opera.

Sanjay Gupta says that one of the names at the top of Sanjay's list for the female lead is Kareena Kapoor, who incidentally was also the first choice for the Chamki Chameli at a time when Benegal was to make the film for another producer.

But when the project exchanged hands and went to Gupta, many other leading ladies were considered. Finally, Chamki Chameli may go to Kareena again.

Kareena is shooting for Mani Ratnam's film in the same location, Kareena does seem the right candidate to play the lead in the newest adaptation of Bizet's Opera about a passionate soldier and a fey capricious gypsy woman, which is now trans-located to Rajasthan.

Even the dates for the two films may clash.

Kareena is certainly open to the idea. She says, "Why not? I'm looking at challenging roles now. Carmen sounds so exciting. And it had come to me originally. Besides I've never worked with Sanjay Dutt. I'd love to be paired with Sanjay Dutt. He's the ultimate looker."