Kareena Kapoor to play CNN's legendary Christiane Amanpour

It looks like Kareena Kapoor has left behind her days of playing Juliet opposite over-aged Romeos. In Prakash Jha’s Satyagrah though she has a love angle with her co-star Ajay Devgn, there is, in the words of a source, ‘No coochie-cooing, no singing and dancing and no running around trees. It’s a very practical mature kind of relationship that doesn’t follow any of the filmy norms of a romance and a relationship.” Kareena’s leap from girlie roles to woman is even apparent in the character she plays in Satyagrah. It’s the role of a mature political journalist with a strong ideological bent to her personality. Kareena’s character is modeled, no not on Barkha Dutt, but CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. Iconic in her own right Amanpour has served up a humane and compassionate element in her worldwide news reportage on CNN of the worst kind of atrocity against mankind for three decades. A role model for female journalists from all over the world Amanpour has been thrown forward by Prakash Jha to Kareena as a direct reference point to her character of a faceless ideologically unshakeable journalist in Satyagrah. Says a source close to the project, “Whenever we’ve seen television journalists in Hindi films they’re invariably modeled on Barkha Dutt. Prakash has not only asked Kareena to model her character on Christiane Amanpour he will make Kareena watch tapes of Amanpour’s news coverage and her show Amanpour on CNN. Prakash wants Kareena to understand how much heart Amanpour brings to her news reportage.” Kareena would also follow Christiane Amanpour’s dress code. Chic and fashionable, yet formal but not too severe and cold. Says our source, “Prakash doesn’t want the journalist to follow the routine dress code of salwar-kameez and sarees. The most stylishly cut executive suits modeled on Christiane’s dress code would be designed for Kareena.” Prakash Jha unabashedly admits to modeling Kareena’s journalist character on Christiane Amanpour. “From the time I wrote the journalist’s character in Satyagrah I had Christiane Amanpour in mind. I wrote Kareena’s character thinking only of Amanpour. I love the deep connectivity she establishes with the viewers with her compassionate reportage and analysis.” Interestingly Kareena has seldom played a professional in her films. Barring the sex worker in Chameli.