It's the film that Aishwarya Rai signed, went to Cannes Film Festival to promote and dropped after news of her pregnancy broke. The Madhur Bhandarkar dream project was almost shelved before Kareena Kapoor stepped into it and made things happen. Randeep Hooda was signed on Kareena's insistence while Arjun Rampal convinced director Madhur Bhandarkar to give him a meatier role.

Now after months of speculation, the first trailer of Heroine is out and it is truly a Kareena Kapoor show.

The trailer opens with Kareena walking the red carpet amidst cheering fans, Kareena posing for the camera. Scene changes and Kareena, aka the 'heroine' says to a woman: "You are the editor of a daily. Film stars are not friends with you but with your position." Scene changes again and Kareena is addressing a press conference, telling off one media person: "You people should be writing scripts. If a heroine buys a car, it's given to her by a businessman, if she goes to LA, she's getting plastic surgery done and if she goes to Dubai, you people make her a rate card." In between the dialogues, there are also shots of the item song, 'Halkat Jawani', in which Kareena is sizzling in funky saris, showing off her incredible dancing skills and sex appeal. Two minutes into the trailer, there are scenes of Kareena's ‘heroine’ losing it, breaking things, as Arjun tells her, "The role is yours." As the trailer closes, a teary-eyed, shaken Kareena sits opposite a cop, as he asks her, "Madam, did someone assault you?" and she replies with a quiet nod of the head and the trailer ends.

The film looks very interesting and if anyone can tell a story from the point of view of a woman, it's Madhur Bhandarkar whose entire film career is centered on female protagonists. But in this particular case, the real question is: can Kareena pull off a Vidya Balan? Like Vidya, Kareena has a solid supporting cast in the form of Arjun Rampal, Randeep Hooda, Divya Dutta and Shahana Goswami. The Dirty Picture essentially worked because it was a well-written story, one that Vidya Balan carried on her shoulder with a mixture of boldness and vulnerability that was irresistible. Can Kareena do it? Films like Chameli and Jab We Met tell us that she can. But if Bhandarkar spins Heroine the same way he spun Fashion, it will be a real disappointment.

Right now, Heroine is already attracting attention and not for the right reasons. The anti-tobacco lobby in India has come down hard on the filmmakers as the film's publicity posters features Kareena smoking a cigarette. On the other hand, one poster of the film that features Kareena has also drawn flak from all quarters for being a rip-off. The poster in question is a copy of one of Mariah Carey's promotional photos for her The Emancipation of Mimi album.