Kareena's new character is inspired by Kate Winslet's in 'Mare of Easttown'

Mumbai, January 30 (IANS) Bollywood diva Kareena Kapoor Khan marks a new phase in her glittering career with a string of films she describes as “shockingly different”. She shared that her character in the upcoming Hansal Mehta movie was partly inspired by the role of Hollywood star Kate Winslet in Mare of Easttown.

She has completed a UK filmed project working title The Buckingham Murders, directed by Hansal Mehta, reports Variety.

The Diva follows a detective mother investigating a murder in a Buckinghamshire town.

“I love ‘Mare of Easttown’ and when Hansal came to me I said, ‘It’s something I really really want to do. ‘ she told Variety.

“It’s the first time I’ve dealt with it.”

“I’m fluent in Hindi and I think in Hindi because that’s what I’ve done all my life,” Kapoor Khan said. “If you think in Hindi but speak in English, it was actually a difficult task because for the first time it was the opposite situation.”

Produced by Ektaa Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms and Mahana Film, the project also marks Kareena’s debut as a producer.

“I never really thought I would become a producer. But hearing about this theme and the fact that it’s very different from a normal Hindi film, it’s a very different approach to things. So I thought this is going to be really nice and different,” Kapoor said.

“And when Ektaa and Hansal said to me, ‘since you love the script so much, why don’t you come on board as a creative producer as well and take a few calls of whatever you think and put your name on it?’ – After much thought, I thought if I love something so much, and that’s a character I wanted to play, I think it’s fun to do. It’s the first time. I don’t know if I’ll do it again but we’ll see.”

Kareena has also completed filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh’s Indian adaptation of Japanese author Higashino Keigo’s bestselling 2005 novel The Devotion of Suspect X.

The actor describes it as “dramatically different” from the Mehta project and “gloomy and funny”.

“It’s very different for me because obviously you’re used to seeing me in all the mainstream movies that have the singing, the dancing, the glitz and the glamour. These two films are shockingly different,” Kareena said.

Next up for her is Rajesh Krishnan’s The Crew alongside Tabu and Kriti Sanon, which begins production in March.

“The Crew is the film that’s going to be shiny and glamorous. And it’s a comedy chick heist movie.

Kareena is married to actor Saif Ali Khan and the mother of two boys.

On how she manages to balance her personal life with her career, she said: “It’s literally like standing on one leg, but I’m pretty good at yoga. I am also very lucky to have a husband who works in the same profession. We take turns when we have to travel,” Kapoor Khan said, adding that they are blessed to have staff to support them.

“When I was shooting Hansal’s film, Saif was at home with the children and now he’s shooting a film in Amritsar. And I’ll be home until March. And after that he’s done and stays at home, and then I go in ‘The Crew.’ It’s a lot of meticulous planning, but if you plan well, I think you can achieve it,” she said.

“It’s not the amount of time you spend with your kids, that’s what I’ve learned in the five to six years I’ve been a parent, it’s the quality of time you give them with no distractions because kids want focus from their parents, from their teachers, from their friends, that’s what they need.”