Sonam Kapoor plays hero’s role in Players

Actor peeved over rumours that she has a cameo in Players and is overshadowed in film’s promos by a bikini-clad Bipasha Basu.

Sonam Kapoor is peeved over rumours of her playing a cameo in Abbas-Mustan’s Players. She insists that the official Indianised remake of The Italian Job (1969, 2003) is an action thriller with her as the female lead opposite Abhishek Bachchan.

“But it’s more like a hero’s role, given I’m driving cars and kicking a** after planning a heist to avenge my father’s betrayal and murder. How many heroines can boast of doing such a role?” she questions.

The actor argues that during the New Zealand schedule of the film, while all her co-actors enjoyed breaks in Wellington and Auckland, she was working from the first day to the last.

“It’s good that I had been to the picturesque country the year before to film I Hate Luv Storys (2010) or I would have been really upset for not being able to go sightseeing,” she says, adding even in Goa, she worked more than the other players. “I only didn’t go with them to Murmansk and St Peterburg in Russia. I would have liked to travel there, particularly to the North Pole, but I was committed to Pankaj sir’s (Kapur) Mausam. I can always go there for a holiday, but my skipping the schedule hasn’t resulted in my role being snipped,” she insists.

Point out to her that in the film’s promos, it’s the painted-in-gold nude Polish model and the bikini-clad Bipasha Basu who have cornered eyeballs, and Sonam retorts, “My look in the film is jeans, leather and boots — it’s glamorous and sexy. But I’m not in the film just as eye-candy.”

She’s glad that Viacom 18 has officially bought the remake rights to the film. “It’s ethical. And what’s even more encouraging is that we’ve Indianised the original content completely, so it’s a new film,” she says.