Would you find Rani Mukherjee playing a middle class sex worker offensive?

In the film Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, Rani plays a small town girl from a respectable middle class family who leaves her home lured by city life. However, confronted by adversities she is eventually forced to resort to prostitution to make a living.

Yash Raj Films (YRF), the production company, isn't sure the plot will go down well with the audience.

A girl from a poor family being forced into prostitution is a tried and tested plot that has readily been accepted by audiences in the past and based on which some of memorable and sensitive films like Amar Prem (1971, Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore) have been made.

However, the concept of a middle class woman resorting to prostitution is giving YRF honchos cold feet, because they feel it may not go down well with the predominantly middle class audiences.

Rattled by two lackluster releases this year - Ta Ra Rum Pum (Saif, Rani) and Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (Abhishek, Preity, Lara, Bobby) - YRF does not want to take chances.
"We don't know how kindly the viewers are going to take the fact that a woman from a middle-class family becomes a sex worker in times of crisis. Surely, we are giving it a thought. After the Jhoom Barabar Jhoom debacle we want to play it safe," a source told Mumbai Mirror.
To conform with the YRF image the film has been kept family oriented by emphasizing the mother-daughter relationship in the plot. However, no one is sure if that is enough.
The problem of course is filming is nearly complete and all they can do now is tweak Rani's role through some deft editing.

"Yashraj films are always meant for family viewing. We don't want to outrage our viewers' sensibilities. Saying so, we can't have any last minute changes as the film has been mostly shot. We intend to release the film in September."

Yet another damper for YRF is the fact Rani also plays a sex worker in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Saawariya.