Director Madhur Bhandarkar says Kareena Kapoor's role in 'Heroine' is much different from the female leads in his earlier films and the actress has never played such a grey-shaded character before.

The 31-year-old actress plays the role of a Bollywood actress Mahi Arora in the film which charts her journey up and down the ladder of stardom and her desperation to survive.

“She has given very layered performance where she is being fragile to manipulative to edgy. Layers demonstrated by her character are completely different from that of the female protagonists in my earlier films.

“She is not someone who is one dimensional; there are different traits to her. Kareena has played a girl next door in many films but never before has she played such a grey character,” said Bhandarkar.

The director, who has made films like 'Corporate' and'Fashion', said he wanted to work with Kareena ever since she debuted in 'Refugee'.

He feels that Kareena has turned out to be just an ideal 'heroine' to help him realise his vision.

“'Heroine' has pretty much turned out to be a lethal combination for both of us. I felt right from the days of 'Refugee' that she carried huge potential while she too liked my 'Chandni Bar' so many years ago. In fact in the interim period we wanted to work together on certain films but that couldn't materialise.”

The film, which released to mixed reviews on Friday, was long overdue according to Bhandarkar.

“I have to give audience what they expect from Madhur Bhandarkar cinema. When I made films like 'Fashion', 'Jail', 'Page 3' or 'Traffic Signal', people always asked me when would I make a film that would be on my own fraternity.

“Since I was anyways making films on other premises, I too thought that it was about time I made a film on the life and times of a heroine,” he said.