After seven years as an actress, Rani Mukerji has covered more ground than perhaps all her contemporaries.

Today she's considered one of the most dependable actresses in Bollywood, with assignments in almost every major project by Mani Ratnam (Yuva), Yash Chopra (Veer-Zaara), Sanjay Leela Bhansali (Black) and Karan Johar's next. Excerpts from an interview.

Q: In Veer-Zaara you don't play a title role, and you've no romantic leading man opposite you. Isn't that unusual?
A: Isn't it usual now to be unusual? Seriously one can't say no to Yash Chopra. He has always played an important part in my career. It was Yash Uncle who convinced my father to do my first important film Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.

Don't forget like Veer-Zaara, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai featured two others in the main lead. I feel I'm completely one with their banner. Two years ago when I had voluntarily no assignments on hand Yash Chopra's banner offered me Saathiya which gave me a new lease on life.

Q: Didn't you wish you'd played Zaara?
A: Not at all. Even if Yash and Aditya Chopra ask me to stand in one corner of the frame and do nothing else, I'm game. As an actor I have to do different kinds of roles instead of getting stuck on central roles.

If I thought like that, I wouldn't have accepted the role of the Bajirao's wife Kashi in Sanjay Bhansali's Bajirao Mastani. It's nothing short of a blessing to have so many different kinds of roles so early in my career.

Q: Are you seeking out unconventional roles?
A: Not at all. I'm very happy doing conventional roles. That's my forte. I'm doing Ravi Chopra's Babul where I play Amitabh Bachchan's daughter-in-law.

It's a very Indian film, therefore conventional. I'm doing Karan Johar's next film which is again very state-of-the-art. I'm also doing Bunty Aur Babli with Shaad Ali which is a load of fun.

What's important is the rapport with the director. After Saathiya Shaad Ali is one of my favourite filmmakers. And after doing Yuva I'm back with Abhishek Bachchan.

Q: All these seem like fairly unconventional roles...
A: The parameters and definitions of convention have changed. Women are today far more important in films than in the '80s or early '90s. In the late '80s, girls had it really tough.

Apart from Madhuri Dixit, Sridevi or Juhi Chawla no one got heroine-centric roles. Then there was Kajol in the mid-90s.

Some actresses like me are game for roles that are diverse and challenging. Roles are no longer about being a coy girlfriend and a devoted wife. In Hum Tum my character is quite unconventional. Even after becoming a widow she falls in love.

Q: Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black offers you a chance to expand your acting vocabulary.
A: Black is an entirely new experience for me. It has taken me into areas of my mind and heart that were so far completely dark. Most of us live in a world where we think shaking hands with handicapped children absolves us of all responsibility.

What about those who exist on the other side? Are they bitter with life, angry with God or with themselves? Doing Black made me realise that we the supposedly normal and successful people are insecure everyday, whereas the physically or mentally challenged go through a different far greater turmoil and are much stronger as human beings. Through Sanjay Bhansali I got to know the power of cinema.

Q: Are you looking at an international career with Ketan Mehta's The Rising?
A: To be very honest, no actor can look at an international career through any specific film. I'd say Black is more of an international film than The Rising.

While The Rising takes up a particular portion of our history Black addresses universal emotions.

Q: So where do you fit into Mangal Pandey's life?
A: I'm his love interest. I've done a mujra in the film. I'm playing a prostitute and I want to see how audiences react.

Q: What went wrong with Mira Nair's adaptation of Jumpa Lahiri's The Namesake which you were supposed to do?
A: Oh I really wanted to do it. I wanted to complete it at one go. Initially itself I told Mira Nair that I'd have date problems.

I was committed to do Aditya Chopra's film (being directed by Shaad Ali) and then Karan Johar's next during the same time. Since I'm very close to both Aditya and Karan I couldn't let their films suffer. What a pity. Because Mira would have been my first female director.