"It's the love story of two people who aren't married to each other," says music composer turned Vishal Bharadwaj about his new and by far most ambitious film Mr Mehta & Mrs Singh.

While Aamir Khan as 'Mr Singh' was finalized a few months ago, the casting of 'Mrs Mehta' comes as a surprise.

Says Vishal, "Kareena Kapoor is an actress I've been watching right since Refugee. Her performance in Mani Rathnam's Yuva finally convinced me of her extraordinary talent. After working with Shabana Azmi in Makdee and Tabu in Maqbool I'm spoilt. I only want to work with the best actresses in the country. And you've to agree, Kareena is among our best today."

Vishal admits he approached Rani Mukherjee and Preity Zinta to play the female lead. "But their dates weren't matching Aamir's dates. So I had to look elsewhere. But I'm glad Kareena is in the project. Aamir has worked with Rani and Preity before but not with Kareena. Theirs is a completely untried pairing. That does add a special edge to the on-screen romance."

To be produced by UTV and written by Vishal, Robin Bhatt and Abhishek Choubey, Mr Mehta and Mrs Singh starts shooting in June 2006.

Vishal seems unfazed by the drop in Aamir 'Exclusive' Khan's equity after Mangal Pandey.

"I don't think Mangal Pandey has affected Aamir's market in any way. It did stupendous business the worldover. I wanted to work with Aamir for a long time...In fact I truly believe some of our stars are immensely talented. Why should we hold their stardom against them?" reasons Vishal who has just finished shootinga film about children entitled The Blue Umbrella which he releases in December 2005.

Mr Mehta & Mrs Singh will be Aamir's third release in the next one year after Rakeysh Mehra's ready for release Rang De Basanti and Kunal Kohli's under-production film with Kajol.