Rani Mukerji's great big challenge

Not one to let a challenge go when it stares her in the face, Rani Mukerji has taken on the task of 'looking more Maharashtrian than Priyanka Chopra did in Kaminey' for her new film, to be produced by Anurag Kashyap. The shooting will start in the first week of October.

Rani, who had earlier transformed into a Sikh boy in Dil Bole Hadippa and a Delhi-based Punjabi girl in No One Killed Jessica, now faces her most dramatic makeover.

Directed by Sachin Kundalkar, the North-South love story called Aiyaa, will co-star Malayalam actor Prithvijraj.

Rani will play a simple, down-to-earth, witty Marathi girl, who falls in love with a South Indian man.

The actress has hired a Marathi tutor and has apparently given up her favourite Bengali maach-bhaat lunch for Marathi cuisine.

Says a source, "Rani wants to feel as Marathi as she can. Unlike her cousin Kajol who is half-Marathi and half-Bengali (Kajol's mother Tanuja is a Maharashtrian), Rani cannot speak Marathi fluently .She is now completely into Marathi food, language and clothes."

Apparently, Rani will not visit Kolkata this Dussehra with the rest of her family because she wants to 'stay out of her Bengali personality' as much as possible.

Rani's spokesperson confirms, "Rani is playing a simple and pretty Marathi girl. It's a quirky love story, lighthearted and fun. She has already started working on her looks. The shooting will go on at a stretch. It will start in the first week of October and go on till December 17. There will only be two days off for Diwali."