Rani Mukherji calls actors beggars

Actress Rani Mukerji would love to be a part of women-oriented movies but feels actors are like beggars as they can't choose much.

Rani, who is known for portraying strong roles in her films, is now playing a police officer in her upcoming film Mardaani.

"It is great that female-oriented films are doing well. I wish more such films come up and work at the box office so more producers are inspired to make such movies," Rani told reporters here at the trailer launch of Mardaani.

"We actors are like beggars. We never choose, but are chosen by creative people, including directors and producers. I will take up the subjects that are interesting and powerful. I hope there will be better roles," she said.

Recently, actress Vidya Balan had said heroines usually don't have much to do in films that centre around the Khan trio (Aamir, Salman and Shah Rukh). However, Rani does not agree with this.

"I love all the Khans. Since the time I did my first few films with them like Ghulam (with Aamir), Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (with Shah Rukh) and others, my role in those films was good. I don't have any complaint. They are amazing," she said.

Rani is quite excited about her next release Mardaani and says the movie is close to her heart.

"This film is extremely close to us. It is the way of awakening the spirit of Mardaani. At a young age I got to know about Rani of Jhansi and how strong she was. And strong doesn't mean in terms of physicality, but in spirit. We women are descendants of Shakti. Through this film we are talking about the inner strength of women so that no one takes undue advantage of them," she said.

"I am inspired by my mother. She is a tigress. From her I have learnt how to be in hold of my actions. She is a very strong personality in the house. We women from Kolkata are known to be strong. My inspiration has been all the strong ladies from my family and lady police officers in real life. I hope this film works," she added.

Rani says that in the course of her research for this film, she found that women inspectors contributed largely to the society and were as good as male officers or even better. She thinks one needs to change the perception towards women officers.