A beauty salon is where I meet Sonam Kapoor, the girl whom I’ve known ever since she was a toddler. This is my first interview with her. So I’m trying to be in sync, cool and youngish.
“Hi Uncle,” Sonam Kapoor smiles warmly in the Arctic air-conditioned environs, and glances at my thatch of salt-n-pepper to suggest, “Let’s get your hair styled!” No, no, duty before hair couture, I wince. It’s her first one-on-one interface, as it happens, after the widely lauded Neerja. Even her most myopic detractors have had to admit that she has evolved astoundingly as an actor. Clearly, a camera-chummy heroine has to work extra-hard to be acknowledged as an artiste of calibre.
Ensconced in a windowless cubicle, her Rapunzel hair is spray-washed by two attendants, who try not to grin, when she updates me right away,
Yes, I snap sternly to which she responds, “Et tu Uncle? I don’t calculate my career or life.”
No pause. Sonam continues, “In retrospect, my film Raanjhana had inadvertent--maybe faint signals - of the JNU campus controversy. The effort was to inspire change, the film raised questions. And okay, so Khubsoorat was a fun chick flick but it’s no joke to be bubbly and bouncy on screen without being irritating.”
Still, Neerja is a role of a lifetime, isn’t it? “200 per cent,” she agrees.
She hasn’t signed on projects of late though there’s been some buzz about an adaptation of Hollywood’s The Sisterhood of The Travelling Pants. “Ha, ha,not at all,” she issues a denial.
She reaches for my antique cellphone, jabs, gives up. “Not fair! You have to get yourself a new one.”
“It’ll have tutorials, occasional film and book reviews, beauty tips,” she elaborates. “And a section called Sister Act in which Rhea and my besties, fashion designer Shehla Khan, dance exponent Pernia Qureshi, hotelier Samyukta Nair and actor Swara Bhaskar will address various issues. Digital is the way to go. So when are you getting a decent phone?”
Soon, soon. Hair-drying guns are trained on her as we yak on. “Don’t you worry about me,” she says, “I’m insanely focused.”
Does the boy-friendless status rankle? She narrows her eyes to riposte, “How can you even ask that?
The hair treatment’s done. Sonam has to fly out shortly for the Cannes film festival, once again to represent a top-line cosmetic brand. In effect, every gown she wears on the red carpet will be monitored, praised or panned.
Does she revel in being the centre of attraction? “Absolutely,” she laughs out loud.
Sonam Kapoor’s Favourite Reads:
Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Leon Uris’ Exodus
Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance
J D Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye
Neil Gaiman’s Stardust
Sonam Kapoor’s Favourite i-Pod Songs
Ajeeb daastan hai yeh (Dil Apna aur Preet Parai)
Lag jaa gale (Woh Kaun Thi)
Sajan re jhoot mat bolo (Teesri Kasam)
Bade acche lagtey hain (Baalika Badhu)
Arziyan..maula mere maula (Delhi 6)
(The writer is a film critic, filmmaker, theatre director and a weekend painter)
(This story is from The Quint’s archives and was first published on 9 May, 2016. It is being republished to mark Sonam Kapoor’s birthday.)
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