Kareena Kapoor might have played saviour to director Madhur Bhandarkar and UTV by stepping into the shoes left empty by Aishwarya Rai in the film Heroine. But the actress is surely being recompensed for it.

Recompensed a bit too extravagantly if one may say so. The actress who had reportedly demanded Rs 10 crore for the project has now settled for Rs 8 crore, the highest sum paid to a leading lady in Bollywood ever.

A source close to the project revealed, "After Aishwarya left the film midway due to her pregnancy, Madhur was left with very few options.

At one point in time, the filmmakers had even decided to shelve the project. However, UTV was very keen to work it out with another heroine. And since work had started on the same, they decided to rope in another heroine for the film.

They had very few options to choose from. Vidya, Priyanka and Kareena were the only options. While Priyanka did not want to do the film since it was very similar to Fashion, Vidya was already busy shooting for Ekta Kapoor's Dirty Picture."

"Madhur was forced to go back to their original choice Kareena Kapoor. This time around, Kareena decided to do the film.

Then began the task of getting her dates. Her diary already choc-a-bloc with dates given out for Bodyguard, Agent Vinod and Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Part 2, making time for Madhur's project seemed tough. Bodyguard is gearing up for Eid release.

Portions of Agent Vinod remains to be shot and she had already committed to Once Upon A Time... However, Kareena juggled her dates and made herself available for Heroine. UTV wanted to thank her for her efforts and pay her well for it.

The deal has now been signed for Rs 8 crore. Though reports suggested that she had asked for Rs 10 crore, the final figure is now Rs 8 crore," added the source.

"This is the biggest amount any actress in the industry has received so far. While the leading actors always get a lot ore money than the heroines, Kareena seems to have broken that barrier," concluded the source.

While Siddharth Roy Kapoor of UTV Motion Pictures chose not to reply to our text messaged, Kareena and her spokesperson refused to comment on the same.

Highest paid till date...

» Kareena seems to have taken over from Ash in ways more than one. She has not only replaced Mrs Rai Bachchan as the heroine in Madhur's film, but also as the highest paid actress of B-town. Ash who was reportedly, paid a whopping Rs 6.5 crore for Rajinikanth's Robot was till date the highest paid actress.

» Before Ash, it was Priyanka Chopra who made the headlines by signing Harry Baweja's Love Story 2050 opposite Harman for Rs 1.5 crore.

» The first time an actress' remuneration made headlines was when Deepak Chopra signed Preity Zinta for his film Yeh Raaste Hai Pyaar Ke for Rs 91 lakh ten years back. Interestingly, this was after Kareena had opted out of the film at the last minute.