‘Zara Si’ is Aditya Chopra’s labour of love. Girlfriend Rani Mukherjee desperately in need of a hit has turned to this chocolate teenybopper, which is laced with a bold theme and comes with bold scenes in tow. Rani turns seductress with a vengeance. About time that she kicked her goody two shoes image. The actress has perhaps realised the need to hitch herself on another wagon and has done all she can to salvage a once upon a time enviable career which today is desperately in need of a makeover.

Shahid, on the other hand, has surprisingly taken the decision to work with Rani; since the last time he attempted to work with someone in the same image bank it had bombed badly. Vidya Balan and ‘Kismet Konnection’ would be one bad dream that Shaahid Kapoor would put behind him but as a production house, Yashraj must have had a great pull for Shahid to get amnesia.

As a rank outsider Shahid has struggled to get a foothold in the big camps and with his ex-girlfriend by his side he did manage to make some headway but now it seems to be his lone battle and the ‘Ishq Vishq’ actor is willing to give it his best shot. He had to make the convincing move into that A+ league. The movie is being directed by Adi Chopra’s second in line director Anuraag Singh but it is a known fact that Adi Chopra gets more than involved in his projects. And this one is bound to be special with Rani in the lead, who is special to Aditya.

Shahid and Rani have worked with each other in the past. Before you rack your brains, let me add that it was in a cola commercial. This was Rani’s first brand endorsement after ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ when SRK, Kajol and Rani had become faces of the cola and the youngster who looked up to them was a young Shahid, barely out of school.

Recently the trends however are looking to be different, also the Chopras can be encouraged that Bipasha and Ranbir were appreciated as a pair in ‘Bachna Ae Haseeno’ so unusual combinations can also be dubbed as the calling. Besides Rani had been working on her look and two ponytails later, she definitely looked younger.

Albeit like her film title ‘Zara Si’. This could also amount to professional hara-kiri; the same change of hair do and the wardrobe going shorter had costed Vidya Balan dearly in ‘Heyy Babyy’ and ‘Kismet Konnection’.

But that remains to be seen. The steamy scenes that are the backbone of the film will perhaps be the ones that will help Rani change her kismet and the actress agreed for them, hoping that they would be aesthetically shot considering boyfriend Aditya would be in charge.

Shooting for ‘Zara Si’ began as usual, nothing extraordinary about it except for the casting. But once the shoot began, it is believed that Rani began addressing Shahid as ‘Sir’ to downplay her age. At first the ‘Jab We Met’ actor passed it off as her insecurity and was willing to overlook the problem. Soon however Rani made it a point that all and sundry call him Shahid Sir and it was not a practical joke anymore and the whole façade began irritating Shahid.