Pakistani actress Meera now will play the title role with five heroes in, Draupadi, producer Haidar Kazmi's next venture to be directed by Rakesh Parmar.

"Draupadi is a contemporary story, based on the expedition of a woman's life from Shimla to Delhi, from a juvenile age to her 30s. Enthused from the Mahabharata, but it is not an epoch production", says Parmar, who is TV actress Juhi Parmar's uncle.

Reminiscent of Draupadi, who had the paanch Pandavas as her husbands, Meera's character too meets five men who edify her about life and relationships. There is a reference to Draupadi and also to Girish Karnad's play Hayavadan, where a woman loves two men — one is generous and the other intellectual, but she wants both persons in one man. So she wants to cut off the head of one and put it on the other's body.

Says Kazmi, "Meera was very eager about the subject. We gave her one narration and she was convinced — she is dying to play Draupadi on screen, which is an Indian mythological character."

"Meera suited our commercial weight; she is marketable and has the right kind of body language to play this role where as Juhi Parmar is TV personality but doesn't have commercial viability," says the director.

Draupadi will be shot in a start-to-finish schedule from November to January 2006.