Deepika is running scared. So far the most abusive word she has used is ‘slut’ in Cocktail. For Ram Leela she needs to get a lot more colorful. Playing Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Juliet in Ram Leela is not going to be a cakewalk for Deepika Padukone. It requires a drastic and complete makeover, and not just from her Armani outfits to ghagra cholis to look like a firebrand from Kutch. She would also have to work seriously on her Gujarati accent to sound credible. However, there’s a lot more to her character than clothes and diction. Deepika’s character Leela has a peppery tongue. Says a source, “She plays a no-holds-barred daughter of the soil. Uninhibited totally oblivious to the niceties of ladylike conduct, she does and says exactly what she wants to, without caring about what the other person would think. Known to think twice before uttering even a syllable out of line, Deepika has never played such an unabashed character before. She would have to learn a lot of words, which she has never heard let alone used before.” According to sources, the heroine in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s film is “a very earthy woman with a hearty laugh, an earthy Juliet who is like a wild flower in a desert.” The character also has to share many seriously intimate moments with her co-star. This basically meant that whoever played Bhansali’s Leela had to lose all her inhibitions and submerge herself in the soil of Kutch, the area where the film is to be shot. Deepika will soon start dipping into her character’s inner world. It won’t be easy since she is an essentially reserved person. Says a source close to Ram Leela, “If she thinks losing her inhibitions for her character in Cocktail gives her the licence to enter SLB’s Gujju Juliet’s world then she is in for a shock. SLB hopes to completely change her personality.”
