Yogesh Patel (Harman Baweja) meets the wacky Vishakha (Priyanka Chopra), one of his 12 prospective wives, in the Bollywood comedy What's Your Raashee? (UTV Communications/TIFF) The cinema has a long history of actors playing multiple roles in comedies, from Alec Guinness and Shirley MacLaine to Eddie Murphy and Mike Myers. Few, however, have pushed that gimmick into the double digits.

In Ashutosh Gowariker's new Bollywood rom-com, What's Your Raashee?, Priyanka Chopra plays no less than 12 characters.

'The magnitude of [playing 12 roles] hit me, and I was, like, "I don't even know if I can do this." I've never been to acting school.'

—Priyanka Chopra

The movie, which recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and opens worldwide Sept. 25, stars Harman Baweja as Yogesh Patel, a young man desperately seeking a suitable bride, with Chopra as the dozen women he dates, each of them born under a different raashee (astrological sign). Chopra's tour de force is apparently a Bollywood record, though not an international one — that's held by Scottish actor Rolf Leslie, who had 27 roles in the 1913 silent Sixty Years a Queen. Regardless, it's still a feat — especially for the 27-year-old actress, a former Miss World who only started acting five years ago.

Chilling in a Toronto hotel room, her voice still hoarse from a TIFF press conference, Chopra admits the prospect scared her. "When [Gowariker] first called me and told me '12 parts,' I was, 'Oh my God, great! Yeah, that'll be so much fun and so cool.' But that died in, like, 10 days, when I started working on it," she adds with a ripple of laughter. "The magnitude of it hit me, and I was, like, 'I don't even know if I can do this.' I've never been to acting school. I just learned on the job."

Gowariker had no doubt Chopra was up to the task. The veteran writer-director says he's been impressed with her ever since her first major role, in 2003's The Hero. "What I like about her is that she brings nuances to the characters she plays," he says in a separate interview. "For this film, I needed an actress with that ability. She's the one I knew could do it."

The movie's conceit gives Chopra ample opportunities for nuance. In each woman he dates, Yogesh sees a reflection of the true love he's destined for. So Chopra isn't disguising herself so much as reflecting different facets of that ideal. Relying just on costumes and body language, rather than prosthetics à la Myers and Murphy, she morphs from a bubblegum-popping college student (Gemini) to a devoted village doctor (Virgo), to a wannabe model voguing in a poodle wig (Scorpio). In one episode she's a demure maiden in a sari (Cancer), in another a hard-nosed businesswoman with a dominatrix streak (Libra).

Chopra gets to geek out in What's Your Raashee? (UTV Communications/TIFF)Each personality was shaped partly by the characteristics of her zodiac sign, Chopra says. For example, Hansa, the Cancer character: "Cancerians are really emotional, very sensitive, very honest. And she is exactly that. The first time she meets Yogesh, she tells him she's had a previous boyfriend who betrayed her."

Some of the roles are broadly comic. Playing the Aries date, Anjali, Chopra got to geek out as a sheltered small-town woman trying hard to be sophisticated but unable to even light a cigarette properly, let alone negotiate English idiom. "She has this funny, snorty laugh, and she's really gawky when she's trying to be confident," Chopra says. "That was really tricky for me, because I'm inherently a very confident person."

However, the toughest role was the Capricorn, a shy 15-year-old schoolgirl named Jhankhana, who is being pushed into wedlock against her will. "I was so stressed when I went on set, I was shaking," Chopra recalls. "With special effects, you can make the face look younger, and I didn't have any of that. I had to just do it in the way I behaved and talked."

The Jhankhana episode – in which the girl's parents lie about her age in an effort to marry her off – reflects the serious touches Gowariker has strewn throughout the film. Although a frothy comedy – with the usual lavish Bollywood sprinklings of song and dance – What's Your Raashee? is also a commentary on Indian marital traditions. When Yogesh announces that he doesn't want the customary dowry with his bride, he attracts a horde of families eager to marry off their daughters cheaply. In another scene, one of his prospective wives balks at the idea of marrying Yogesh before she gets to know him – a gentle dig at arranged marriages.

"I want this to be a fun film in the theatre," Gowariker says, "but when they go back home, I want the Indian audience to carry with it some thoughts about these things."

This is the first comedy for the director, whose reputation is built on dramas and historical epics, like last year's acclaimed Jodhaa Akbar. Gowariker and his co-scenarist, Naushil Mehta, based their Raashee script on Madhu Rai's popular 1970s novel Kimball Ravenswood (the odd title refers to the Chicago junction where Yogesh is living before he returns home to India to pick a wife). Gowariker says he loved the book's frantic comic premise: "How this boy has to make a choice, choose the right girl, within 10 days" in order to inherit a fortune.

Chopra and Baweja in a scene from What's Your Raashee? (UTV Communications/TIFF)Gowariker clearly brought his epic sensibility to the film. It was shot over five months in 65 separate locations, from a palace in sweltering Rajasthan to the wintry streets of Chicago. The running time is more than three hours – long for a comedy, even by Bollywood's expansive standards.

Chopra says the shoot was grueling but that Gowariker was a pleasure to work with. "He's such a fun person and hugely talented. And he's so prepared. Sixty per cent of his film is already done before he even sets foot on set."

She also got along with Baweja, despite rumours to the contrary. The pair, co-stars in 2008's sci-fi flop Love Story 2050, had been romantically linked for several years but broke up at the time What's Your Raashee? began filming. However, Chopra says Baweja was nothing but sympathetic.

"Poor thing, he had to deal with my tantrums and crankiness," she says, laughing. "He was so supportive through this movie, and I think that came from knowing me for such a long time."

Finally, before she loses her voice, the most obvious question: What's her raashee? Cancer, Chopra says, adding her birthday is July 18. "A Cancerian is emotional. She's strong; she's loyal; she's somebody who has a lot of integrity. And all those good things are in me," she adds, teasingly. "Modest me."

What's Your Raashee?, in Hindi and English with subtitles, opens on Sept. 25.

Martin Morrow writes about the arts for CBCNews.ca.