But the actor isn't taking inspiration from his own life

One may think that Arjun Rampal's role as an actor in Madhur Bhandarkar's Heroine would require minimal preparation on Rampal's part. On the contrary, the actor is going out of his way to get into the skin of the character -- the buzz is that he will model it on Shah Rukh Khan.

"I am not telling you whom I'm going to model my character on. But I won't deny that I'm borrowing traits from people I've observed from close quarters. In theory it sounds easy for me to play an actor, because I am one myself. But Madhur Bhandarkar doesn't want me to play me. We are working on creating an entirely new character. I want to show the dark and vulnerable side of the man."

Rampal will star opposite Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who took on the role after it was rejected by Kareena Kapoor. "I'm looking forward to working with Aishwarya again. We did her home production, Dil Ka Rishta some years ago. But Heroine is a different world altogether -- I think Aishwarya and I share a great screen chemistry."

In other news, Rampal will play a hard-boiled cop in Tigmanshu Dhulia's Jai Ramji, for which the actor visited a police station in Delhi to study cops.

And the model-turned-actor will play a gray character in Sudhir Mishra's film opposite Chitrangda Singh. Rampal will explore power-play and sexual harassment in the corporate world. We wonder who he'll model that character on.