(This interview
by Anna MM Vetticad first appeared in The New Indian Express on September 25,
2011.)
HEADLINE: “I can’t keep doing
performance-oriented roles like Jab We
Met”
HEADLINE: “Having something
substantial in a Salman Khan film – that hasn’t happened to any actress in the
last five years!”
Kareena
Kapoor’s friends say that her famed lack of diplomacy has been tempered by her
relationship with Saif. Fortunately her frankness remains intact, as Consulting
Editor Anna M.M. Vetticad found
during this interview:
How
did you get involved in Bodyguard?
When
Salman saw the original film, I think the first thing that he told his sister
was, if we’re making this movie I want Kareena to play this character. When I
watched the original Malayalam film I loved the girl’s role. Having something
substantial in a Salman Khan film – that hasn’t happened to any actress in the
last five years!
So
it’s important to you that your role should be substantial?
Absolutely.
Golmaal 3 had so many male characters but I was very sure that the
female lead has to be the focus. After a decade in the industry, the most
important thing for me is that I must have an equal role to the male in my
movies.
Is
it easy to find substantial roles as an actress?
Not
when you constantly focus on the fact that you want performance-oriented roles.
And I don’t mean to sound stand-offish or cocky but the fact is that you’re
offered work on the basis of your talent, because ultimately you have to act,
you know.
Have
you interpreted your role differently from the way Nayantara did in the
Malayalam Bodyguard?
The
Malayalam film was made for the south Indian palate. We’ve tweaked it for
northern audiences.
What
is the difference between the southern and northern palate?
People
here like to see action with a bit of the typical Salman comedy. All that has
to be incorporated into a Salman film. The treatment of our films is different
to what the south does. Though I feel some of the south Indian scripts are
fantastic, they’re ahead of their times, especially Malayalam. They’re better
than our Bollywood films.
You
watch a lot of Malayalam cinema?
I
don’t, but I’ve seen a few films of Priyan (Priyadarshan) and Siddique has told
me about films he’s written. Their ideas are ahead, they’re forthright. It’s
more interesting than what we guys come up with.
How
was the response to the Hindi Bodyguard
in southern India?
No
Indian film has had the kind of collections that Bodyguard has had in south India.
No
Indian film or no Hindi film?
I
mean no Hindi film has got the collections that Bodyguard has got in certain places in south India.
Have
you ever been offered roles in southern films?
Yes.
But I have a thing that when I don’t understand the language, I don’t think
I’ll be able to perform my character. So I’ve constantly stayed away from
languages that I don’t understand.
The
position of women in Bollywood was better in the black and white days than it
has been since the 1970s. Are we returning to a phase when heroines will have
more longevity than in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s?
I
think so. It’s also on the basis of talent and how you look. Yes there is a
longer innings for women of this generation for sure.
After
a long time we’ve had someone like Aishwarya who did not slow down on her
career post-marriage. Since the 1990s it’s been assumed that if an actress got
married she’d slow down for 5/10 years, then maybe come back. Do you think
Aishwarya’s career track has opened doors for younger heroines like you?
I
completely come from this school of thought, the Meryl Streep school where your
talent will take you places. If you can work for 25 years and still do Bridges of Madison County and The Devil Wears Prada, then why not? I
hope our cinema will be like that some day.
Has
your attitude towards marriage changed? I remember you once saying in an
interview, “I won’t be one of those actresses who gets married and still
continues acting” and “what’s the point of getting married if you do that?”
When
I am married I want to give more time to family and to the person I love. I
think I can manage. I mean I’m the only actress in the last decade who has
balanced her professional and personal life. I’ve managed beautifully till now,
touchwood. I am absolutely proud of the fact that I clearly do have a life
apart from films. I sleep, breathe, eat films when I am on set, but I enjoy a
life apart from this. My passion is films, but I am also passionate about love,
so I balance both and I want to continue doing so forever.
You
think you are the only actress of your generation who has managed to balance
her personal and professional life?
Not
everybody is open about a relationship. I don’t know of any actress who has
ever said, I am going out and I do have a personal life, the way me and Saif
are. For some strange reason nobody likes to be as public as we’ve been. For me
love is a celebration and I would want everyone to know when I am in love
because there is nothing wrong in it.
Salman
is on a high right now, but Shah Rukh has not had a release for 19 months and
in between he did a TV show that didn’t do well. Any concerns on that front?
These
things keep changing from Friday to Friday. Somebody’s film will work on a
particular Friday and somebody else’s will not, but that doesn’t take away from
the fact that they are superstars.
Why
didn’t you accept Heroine when you
were first approached for it?
I
was busy.
Was
it not because you couldn’t agree on the money?
I
didn’t reach that stage. I was shooting five movies together, so it was impossible
to do the movie at that point.
Did
it have anything to do with disagreements over the script?
Not
at all.
You
were approached again after Aishwarya was dropped from it. She’s Abhishek’s
wife and Amitabh Bachchan’s daughter-in-law. Since there’s a very small pool of
talent in the industry, do actors need to worry about such things?
I
said yes to the movie on the basis of the script. What happened is not my
concern. I hope actors sign movies on the basis of their script – that’s what I
do. There are movies that I haven’t done that somebody else has done, how does
that matter? We’re here to do our work, not to hold hands and sing in the park.
But
there’s a difference between Heroine
and films that you have not done which others have accepted in the past. The
parting of ways with Aishwarya was very public and unpleasant. Are you not
worried that your acceptance of this role will affect your relationship with
Aishwarya, Abhishek or Amitabh Bachchan?
I
don’t see it in that light at all. It’s quite shocking that people would think
that. They have their own life, and the Kapoors have the deepest and utmost
regard and respect for the Bachchans and vice versa, so this is not something
that has crossed my mind for a minute.
Is
a film like Jab We Met more
creatively satisfying than a Bodyguard?
Yeah,
of course but we must balance every kind of film. It just so happened that Shah
Rukh, Salman, Aamir, Saif all happened to want me in their movies in one
particular year. And I can’t keep doing performance-oriented roles like Jab We Met. I must balance the small
films, the big films, do a mix of everything.
Is
it infuriating that when films fare brilliantly at the box office, the industry
and the country as a whole tend to credit the success primarily to the hero?
India
and our industry in particular are male dominated, but with me there’s always
been an exception. Bodyguard, for
instance, will always be a Salman Khan-Kareena Kapoor film because the girl had
such a strong character. It wasn’t just that I was showing up in the songs. I
would never want to do that.
(Anna M.M. Vetticad is on Twitter as
@annavetticad)
Related link: Kareena Kapoor profile
Photograph courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/BBThisEid
Note:
This
photograph was not sourced from The New Indian
Express
she is so so sexy actress
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