Rakul Preet Singh: Seven kinds of stories, nine emotions around

Nushrratt Bharuccha in Janhit Mein Jaari; (right) Rakul Preet Singh. Pic/Instagram

Nushrratt Bharuccha is gearing up for the June release of Janhit Mein Jaari, a comedy that sees her as a small-town woman who sells condoms for a living despite societal resistance. Jai Basantu Singh's directorial venture has an interesting premise, but may face a hurdle - incidentally, Rakul Preet Singh's Chhatriwali is centred on a similar theme. In the Tejas Prabha Vijay Deoskar-directed film, Singh plays a condom tester. Many would argue that Bharuccha's comedy has the advantage of releasing first, but Singh is unperturbed. "I don't look at it like that," she says. "There are only seven kinds of stories and nine emotions in the school of filmmaking. How you do permutations and combinations [to tell a story] is up to you."

It's not unusual for two films to explore the same subject. About 20 years ago, five films were made on freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, including Ajay Devgn's The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2002). Not too long ago, Devgn starred in Drishyam (2015), which was a remake of the Malayalam film of the same name, and had glaring similarities with Keigo Higashino's celebrated novel The Devotion of Suspect X. That hasn't deterred Sujoy Ghosh from attempting an adaptation of the novel with Kareena Kapoor Khan.

Singh has complete faith in Chhatriwali, which also stars Sumeet Vyas. Asserting that the treatment counts, she says, "We have been watching action for decades. It's kicking, punching, hitting and so on, but in every film, it is treated differently. It ultimately boils down to whether the film is good or not."