Arjun Rampal is today in a very confident space. Gone are the days when Aishwarya Rai lorded over her home production Dil Ka Rishta while Arjun had to play the sleeping partner.

He ensured himself a proper place in the publicity campaign of Heroine.

In Madhur Bhandarkar’s much talked-about Heroine he was main male lead. And certainly not in the walkover sense of, say, Sameer Dharamadhikari in Bhandarkar’s Satta or Arjan Bajwa in Fashion.

In Bhandarkar’s heroine-oriented films the male actors tend to be shadowy, mere supplements to the main attraction, namely the heroine.

There’s no doubt that in Heroine too Kareena Kapoor took centre-stage. But Arjun was not insecure about his space in the film. This isn’t the first heroine-oriented film he has done with Kareena. In Siddharth Malhotra’s We Are Family Arjun held his own despite Kajol and Kareena playing the two central characters.

“And no one said I was a second fiddle to them in We Are Family,” Arjun points out confidently, adding that if there was so much of Kareena in the first posters and trailer of Heroine then it was by design. “The film was called Heroine and it is the story of Kareena’s character’s journey in the film industry. I am the man in her life. I’m there from the beginning till end. Other men come and go. I am the constant in Kareena’s character’s life.”

We understand from sources that Arjun has stipulated in his contract that he’d be given a certain space in the promotions of Heroine.

And rightly so. Arjun has a standing in the Bollywood hierarchy.

Says the busy actor, “I am picking roles that challenge me. Staying central to the plot is not my goal. In my next release Inkaar I worked with Sudhir Mishra for the first time. In my release after that Charavyuha I’m back working again with Prakash Jha after Raajneeti. In fact I am also in Prakash’s next film Satsang which starts in December. This is a very busy year for me.”