Mehrunissa, the epic love story set during the 1947 Partition, is proving to be quite a challenge for Chitrangada Singh.
Her current favourite director Sudhir Mishra, apparently, has issued a strict ultimatum to her to unlearn all the modern skills she had mastered for her purported role in Krissh 3, and to gain weight.
If she doesn't shape up in two months, she apparently could find herself out in the cold, replaced by a more suitable heroine to play the title role!
Confirms a source, "Yes, Sudhir has issued her an ultimatum. Chitrangada will have to master the speech, body language, clothes, culture and ethos of a Muslim girl in post-Partition India within a couple of months.
This is proving difficult as not only is she completely unaware of the era and culture she must embody as Mehrunissa, but till very recently she was also actively preparing for the svelte, futuristic role in Rakesh Roshan's next (which she is no longer doing).
Now, the actress has to go back in time, all the way to 1947, fast and rigorously."
And Mishra's demands don't end just there. He has, apparently, asked her to make a trip to Pakistan to get a feel of the country's culture before they starting shooting.
"Playing a Muslim girl from 'undivided' India won't be a question of only getting the language and the clothes right.
The director wants her to fly down to Pakistan and get a first-hand feel of the atmosphere and people, " adds the source.
Incidentally, Nikhil Advani, who has written the script of Mehrunissa, was not too convinced about Chitrangada being the right choice for the role.
But since Advani trusts Mishra's judgement implicitly, he has agreed to see how far the actress can go with the character of a girl with whom both Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor's characters are supposed to fall in love with in their youth.
The actress, who has a packed work schedule as well as a family event to attend to before the year is through, is running against time.
But the director, it seems, is confident of his girl. "The role requires intense preparation. She is already preparing for the part and I think she can pull it off, " he says.
