Sonam Kapoor buys rights for Anuja Chauhan's novel

Sonam Kapoor, whose first film Saawariya was loosely based on Fyodor Dostoevsky' short story White Nights, has bought the film rights of one of Anuja Chauhan's novels for the sheer love of its female characters.

Kapoor, who describes herself as someone who lives to eat and read in that order, says the book has characters that exist in reality and that's what prompted her to buy the film rights.

If the story gets translated onscreen, it would be Kapoor's third movie based on a novel after Aisha, which was a modern interpretation of Jane Austen's Emma and saw the actress playing a posh Delhi girl.

"The idea of taking a book and turning the pages I remember have been the biggest high for me. So, it was imperative for me to play something like this before I get too old. It is about modern Indian women who exist in reality but not in Hindi cinema," Kapoor said.

The actress was in the city recently to launch Chauhan's third novel Those Pricey Thakur Girls by Harper Collins.

The actress declined to name the book that her father Anil Kapoor's production company has acquired from Chauhan's other two novels -- The Zoya Factor and Battle for Bittora.

Kapoor says she is proud to have played some real women on celluloid in her short career in Bollywood.

"I could play a little bit of modern Indian girl in Delhi 6 and Aisha. Both were Delhi girls. One was from Chandni Chowk while the other was from Defence colony and both girls exist."

The actress believes that reading helps her to imagine new characters and places which in turn helps her as an actor.

When asked about people's response to her extensive reading habit, Kapoor said, "People generally get surprised with women with brains."