Covering Bollywood and the Hindi Cinema

In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7’s Walk the Talk, Kareena Kapoor speaks about the challenges posed by her roles in Omkara and Chameli, being part of the Kapoor clan of Bollywood, and where she wants to be.

 • What stands out when you look at your last few works? Everybody has a favourite.

I think it would be what you told me off this show — Omkara. That’s my favourite.

• Why is it so special?

I don’t know. I think I’m partial towards (director) Vishal Bhardwaj. He’s one of the finest filmmakers we have in the country. Besides, he is real, he is commercial, and I think he has everything that it takes. Omkara was truly, truly special and one of the best roles an actor could ask for.

• Difficult?

For me, yes.

• Why?

I think it was very subtle, very subdued. A lot of inner pain to be portrayed, which I think is a little more difficult.

• Tough to be a good girl and yet be so madly in love with a really bad boy.

That’s true.

• Tell me some of the tougher moments during that film.

Like you said, being good but falling in love with a bad person, knowing the kind of business the man you’re in love with does, he’s a little older than you. Also the whole Uttar Pradesh accent, the whole atmosphere. I think people associate me with the upmarket, but Omkara was very earthy, very Bihari sort of.

• Not so much Bihari as certain parts of Uttar Pradesh, but since you say very earthy, remember that expression that Konkana (Sen) used to describe you — ‘Kauwe ke mooh me barfi.’

That’s true. She was also lovely in the movie.

• Tell me something that challenged you while doing the role (of Dolly), some scene, some moments.

I think the last scene, when Ajay (Ajay Devgan, who plays Omkara) doubts Dolly and goes for the kill and when she is totally shocked, which forms the climax of the movie. It was very interesting to do and one of the major reasons I thought the movie would be challenging for me.

• But did you handle it?

Yeah, I think.

• What were the comparisons at that time between your role in Omkara and Tabu’s in Maqbool, another Vishal film?

I think the roles were completely different. Tabu’s role was a little negative, and Dolly in Omkara was very, very positive.

• Tabu was a bad girl too.

It was different. But Vishal sketches all his characters unbelievably.
• What else, besides Omkara?

I think Jab We Met. It was very exciting and one of the biggest successes of the year. Everybody has made it special for me.

• In Jab We Met, you spoke the ultimate truth — that you are your favourite person. Every human being knows that, but nobody wants to say it.

It was very exciting to do it. It was a great role, very honest, very real. The kind of difficulties I had . . . I think being emotional in scenes is easy, but being yourself is difficult.

• Why do you say so? I thought being emotional was the toughest part.

No, at least not for me.

• Everybody says the toughest thing is “emoting”. I don’t like the expression too much.

Emoting is feeling: it’s what you feel and so it’s easy. But she was so talkative, so vulnerable at the same time.

• She was so Punjabi. Which is what you are.

That was difficult.

• Is that so? People say that, after Preity Zinta, you are the bubbliest female star in Hindi cinema, and in Jab We Met you were allowed to be yourself.

Maybe, part of me may be exuberant, fun-loving, impulsive, volatile, speaking her mind. (The role) . . . was a little bit like me. Still, it was tough.

• Were there moments when you thought you were not really acting and just being yourself?

I’d like to do that in every role. I’d like to put a little bit of me in whatever I do because it’s important to do that, as audiences need to connect and make it real.

• Where did you put a bit of yourself in Omkara?

The passion with which she loved, she trusted, and blindly sacrificed everything for her love, the intensity of her love — I think I’m like that. I’m passionate about whatever I do, intense about whatever I do, whatever step I take professionally and personally, and I think Dolly was like me.

• Go back to one of your earlier movies, like Asoka. Tell us a bit about that.

That was the film in which I worked with Shah Rukh Khan. Asoka was lovely. I got to do action scenes in the movie and the climax was interesting.

• You worked with him again in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Ghum, as his sister-in-law.

Not as a lover. But not after that.

• You were the first Kapoor of your generation to make it big. How does it make life? Is it difficult being a Kapoor, or different?

I don’t think it’s difficult. But people feel it could be easy, but it’s not easy at all. I think it’s too many responsibilities. You have to be careful about whatever you do, the decisions you take. But I think my parents have made it very easy for me, which has been very nice. They are extremely cosmopolitan. They let both me and Karishma work, have our career, and brought us up to be very independent girls.

• You are the favourite of your parents?

I’ve lived with my mum and so my mother is like everything to me. My father is my best friend.

• You share secrets of your life, doubts, questions.

Yeah, everything.

• So when something new happens in your life, he is the first person to know.

Yeah. In fact I’m scared of my mum but I’m not as sacred of my father.

• You see one more Kapoor coming in now. There’s been a mixed sort of history of interpersonal relations in the Kapoor clan . . . tensions, as it happens in all big, large joint families. Did you handle a bit of that?

I think everything is fine now. Ranbir (Kapoor) has come and everybody is happy. We all have made peace and it’s okay. Everyone has problems, like you said, in large families and there shouldn’t be an issue. Besides, I love my uncle, my family. Ranbir is my brother. We go to each other’s houses and meet very often — at the end of the day we are blood-relations. Me and my family have put everything behind us and have no issues now. I’d love to be part of their home and love them to be part of mine.

• But did you play a small part in this truce, the peacemaking and restoration of normal relations?

You know, being the youngest, I should make the effort. Me going to the Saawariya premiere. Sanjay (Leela Bhansali) invited me and I made an effort to really find time and go for it, because Ranbir is my brother and I’d like to stand there for him.

• What future do you see for him? Do you think he is a true-blue Kapoor?

I think it’s in our genes. Nothing can go wrong. He is fantastic on screen.

• You see yourself working with him someday?

Well, not as a lover.

• As a film star, how does one handle the pressures you have handled? You’ve been under extreme pressure, extreme public gaze, as everybody is, but as you become famous, it increases. How have you handled it? I ask because you have handled it well.

Thank you. I think being honest and true to your family and to whatever decision you make is what, maybe, sets me apart. I have always spoken my mind and never with the intention of hurting anyone. And I think I have just been true to myself. That’s the best way to be. I also do understand that the media and everyone has the right to know what’s going on because at the end of the day we are celebrities and they would like to know and so (one should) also give them the benefit of doubt.

• You also give them some stories.

They need it. As I said, I don’t blame them, but sometimes it gets a bit intrusive.

• You don’t blame them, but you feed them.

Yeah, that’s the right way to go.

• You have always been upfront about your personal life, your relationships, and again, in a business where people get their fame by hiding. Was it a conscious decision or it just happened?

Like I said, I’m really not worried or scared for anyone except my family. I would like to do whatever I can do in the right way for them. As long as they know the truth, nothing else matters and I’d not like to hide anything. I don’t know, is there anything to hide to be famous? I think you must be true and answerable to your fans.

• But the media is much more fun when they “find out”, is it not? And many actors play on that.

I’m trying to be like that now.

• You don’t need to build your fame from leaks now, you are doing fine. So you had one relationship earlier, which you were very open about, and there was a little MMS episode. How did you handle that?

I think my family was very supportive. What happened was an invasion of privacy. It was not done. I still stick to the fact that I don’t know how these pictures worked. It was never like I was in a public place and they were taken. It does bring a lot of pain.

• You mean somebody broke into some place where you were?

I still don’t know. All I know is that I wouldn’t be in a public place like that because of the kind of family I come from. Both me and Shahid (Kapur) are sensible, intelligent young people. So it wouldn’t be like that.

• You didn’t scream blue murder and he didn’t threaten to break somebody’s bones.

Yeah, I think we handled it quite calmly.

• The next shift in your life has kept the media busy for some time. When did that start?

Actually, the media has made it out to be . . . I don’t know what. All I’d like to say is that sometimes things happen in life, some things work out, some things don’t. I think I don’t know in which direction my life is going. All I know is that, right now, my work is my focus.

• But you are happy the way things are, in work and your personal life.

Yes. Professionally, I’m extremely happy, and like I said, my focus is on that for sure.

• What’s coming up now in the next few months?

On April 25 we have Tashan.

• I think you lost lots of weight (for the role), according to Wikipedia and film magazines. If I’m wrong, please tell me.

For Tashan, yes. It’s for getting into the look of the film, which I felt while reading the script. It needed to be nice, a little more grunge, and very Hollywood kind of style, and having a Hindi masala bit to it also. It’s an interesting film for me. I’m very excited.

After that, there’ll be an interesting comedy, Golmaal Returns. It’s an interesting comedy and I’m in a comedy for the first time. I think people will like it.

• Since you have spent time with Saif (Ali Khan) now, you like comedy.

Yes, his comic timing is great. He’s a funny guy and has a great sense of humour.

• You’ve been around here (in Bollywood) for seven-eight years. Tell me some high points and low points.

I think I have to include Refugee in the high points. It was a great launch and I couldn’t ask for better. Then Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Ghum, Omkara, Chameli. Chameli was a wonderful movie. I’m happy people liked it. And of course Jab We Met now.

• Was Chameli tough?

It was tough. At 21, I decided to play a prostitute. I’d come from a very protected home and did not really know anything about it. I’m happy I chose that role.

• Were there people who warned you not to do that role?

Not really. Everybody was very supportive and said, ‘Try something different, take risks.’ And I like taking risks.

• Do you discuss your work with your parents?

Yes, with my sister, with my parents, with my dad over dinner. They are very open to things I do.

• What did they say? Did you discuss your role in Chameli with them? What did each one of them say?

My father was very excited about Chameli. He said it’s a very different movie and you’ll get to prove that you can do different characters. Mom said, ‘Do what you want, whatever makes you happy.’ My sister was most concerned and said that I must look very good.

• And Omkara?

My father loved me in Omkara, which was so nice to hear. I like it when my father tells me he is happy with something I’ve done.

• Would you like to have a film having your father, uncle, sister?

Yes. All of us in the movie, great!

• Tell me what has intrigued me. Where did the two of you (sisters) get your nicknames from? So many Kapoors become famous for their nicknames.

Lolo, Bebo. It’s just the form of love that mom and dad call us. Bebo for the youngest, as if baby, or something like that.

• It just happened, like it happens in all families?

Yes, nothing really meaningful.

• Do you think Bollywood is an unfair place? Even now they say that unless you are a big male star, it can’t give you a great start for a film. Men are paid more.

I don’t know.

• If you look at an industry that produces 150 films (a year) and has about five big stars and all five are male. You are getting somewhere, but there is an impression that it is male stars who make it big here.

Yes, it is a male-dominated industry, but I think as an actress I have done some roles that are more heroine-oriented, be it Omkara, Chameli, or Jab We Met. It’s what you choose.

• You’ve said no to a movie?

Of course. I’ll do what I believe in. That’s the only way to survive here.

• You were okay with doing something like Don?

I wanted to be part of the iconic song ‘Ye mera dil.’

• You were wonderful in the last Screen Awards, where Helen made a small cameo.

I cannot regret doing Don and with Shah Rukh Khan and me doing that song. It was great.

• What’s the other iconic thing you would like to do? Would you like to do a ‘Mebooba, mehbooba’ or something?

Maybe a Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge with Shah Rukh Khan, because a love story is perfect.

• And now that Shah Rukh Khan is looking so much younger, I think he can carry it off. Wonderful to have you on Walk the Talk. All the very best.

Thank you.