Sudhir Mishra's new film has distinct echoes of 2004 Priyanka Chopra-starrer Aitraaz, in which Chopra played an ambitious woman in the corporate world. In Mishra's film, Chitrangda Singh plays a woman who gets carried away by her ambitions and ends up accusing the man she loves (played by Arjun Rampal) of sexual harassment.
Said Mishra, "I haven't seen Aitraaz. But a woman who loses her sense of self in a corporate set-up to pursue her ambitions can be very dangerous."
In the director's words, Singh plays a 'slut' in the film.
On the sets then, Mishra had a simple brief for his leading pair: Hate one another.
"A role of a woman, who tries to destroy the man she loves, has never been done in Hindi films. And Viacom 18, the producers are running scared
. They want the character's greyness to be toned down, and prefer it if Chitrangda is shown repenting towards the end of the film. Even Priyanka Chopra did at the end of Aitraaz, " said a source.
But Mishra is reportedly unwilling to take things down a notch.
"It's a film describing sexual dynamics in the corporate world. Chitrangda plays a woman who gets carried away by her ambitions. By contemporary definitions of womanhood, her character would be called a slut and she is unapologetic about the ruthlessness of her ambitions, " he said.