Clearly, she’s a big girl now. She was just about learning to take baby steps in showbiz when I first met her during Saawariya. Today she seems well versed in industry natter. Spend an afternoon with her and she’ll give you her take on the Hindi film industry in no mean terms. She tells it like it is. She talks about how she doesn’t want to be part of the rat race. How acting isn’t just about earning money. She’ll tell you she won’t endorse products she isn’t convinced about. She wants to be a responsible citizen because there are too many irresponsible people around. That then is Sonam Kapoor for you.
The industry’s latest sunshine girl.
And if, in her personal life, she’s being linked with co-actor Kunal Kapoor, like a true Hindi film heroine, she’ll deny it. What’s more, she’s even banned two magazines. Now if that isn’t the ultimate test of celebrity, what is?
`“They wrote nasty things about my family and me,” she wails. “And that’s not done.” See what I mean about being a big girl? She has her opinions and she isn’t afraid to air them anymore.
So we’re sitting in the ‘den’, as this room is referred to, in Anil Kapoor’s palatial home after a scrumptious meal at his dining table. It’s one of those langorous afternoons where all you want to do is chill. Sonam Kapoor half sitting, half lying on the couch, clutching a pillow to her stomach is doing just that. Between sips of Chinese tea, which she informs me is good for digestion, she talks about the ‘heavenly’ holiday she had in New York. It was a just reward for working non-stop for five years, she tells me.
She giggles, “After Dilli 6 was over, I told papa he had to buy me a holiday. I told him my money is for investments. And since he earns for the family, it’s only right that he should. So be bought me a ticket to New York. And I had a blast for a month. I shopped like crazy and saw movies and plays. I went to different restaurants, ate like a pig and partied hard. I had a ball.”
Clearly, having a ball is her raison d’etre. That’s what she claims she did on the sets of Dilli 6 too. Despite heavy-duty rehearsals, shooting at odd hours in chiffon saris in the chilling Jaipur winter, she states, “I had the best time of my life on the set. We would have the most debauched parties every ten days. But we would also work like dogs.”
Tell her the buzz in the industry is that Rakeysh Mehra is a tyrant on the sets, that he treated her rather brusquely and she screams her guts out. I almost run for cover. “Are you mad? Have you ever met him? I can’t believe people are saying this. He’s the sweetest person around. He just looks scary but he’s not. Really, he’s so nice. Nothing upsets him. He’s always in a state of yogic bliss.”
Chummily, she reveals that if anyone was ever angry on the sets it was her. Why? Because Rakeysh Mehra doesn’t believe in giving anyone more than three takes. She laughs now. “I would plead with him to give me one more take. And he’d be like there’s no need. I’ve got what I wanted. He’d say whatever you want to do, do it in two-three takes. I couldn’t take that. Because I was so used to this one-little-hair-has-gone-over-your-face-so-one-more-take Sanjay Bhansali school of acting. This was a shock for me.”
She recalls her first day of shooting on the sets of Dilli 6. How she went up to Rakeysh and asked him whether she was looking okay. Whether her hair was okay. She chuckles, “What did I know? I was so used to Sanjay Leela Bhansali inspecting every tiny detail. But Rakeysh was like, ‘You always look fine, what’s wrong? Theek hi ho yaar.’ Binod sir, who has worked with Sanjay Leela Bhansali, realized my predicament. So he told me, ‘You’re
looking fine. Just move your hair a little to the left.’” There was nothing wrong with my hair but he said that just for my peace of mind. You know, I was getting paranoid on the sets because no one was concerned about my looks. And I would run to Binod sir. After the third day, even he was fed up.”
Lying on the couch, she claims she’s glad she got the opportunity to work with such diverse directors. Says she, “Sanjay Bhansali has trained me to be aware of the way I look and Rakeysh Mehra insists on me being organic and natural. So while I’m aware of my looks, I’ve become completely unconscious of the way I look. It’s a great combination.”
As we talk some more about her favourite directors, she continues, “Sanjay Bhansali has a more dramatic, operatic style of filmmaking whereas Rakeysh is more real. His work is not choreographed. There’s rawness about his work. For Sanjay Bhansali you need to give those 15 takes to attain perfection, to look that beautiful. But it doesn’t mean there’s no beauty in what I have done in Dilli 6. My hair is all over the place, my voice is hoarse. I might not look beautiful when I’m crying in a Rakeysh Mehra film but I look beautiful when I’m crying in a Sanjay Bhansali film. There’s a beauty in both styles. Rakeysh Mehra will never tell me don’t do the scene this way. He’ll tell me do it instinctively. Sanjay Bhansali used to give me more direction on where to look, what to do. So in that sense it was easier for me to do Saawariya. It was completely choreographed for me.” Having said that she adds, “Dilli 6 will be the true test of my ability. It will tell me whether I have it in me or not.”
You don’t need to be Einstein to know that she’s her papa’s daughter. Every sentence begins with ‘papa’. Everything she needs to know about the industry, she’s learned from papa. Like a good soup, it all starts with the stock. And there’s no doubt Anil Kapoor has passed on the acting genes to his daughter. “I told papa he must make a movie for me now,“ she trills. “I told him, sab apne beton ke liye banate hain. Aap apni beti ke liye banaiye.”
The question that arises here is whether she resents not getting a home launch. She shakes her head vigorously, disabusing you of the notion right away, and tells you what papa once told her. “He said, ‘An actor should never ever get comfortable. Because as soon as you are relaxed it shows on the screen. Tum thandi ho jaogi. Always be on the edge.’ I got a Sanjay Bhansali film on my own. I got Rakeysh’s film because of my first film. I did that by keeping at it. By saying that I want to work as an assistant with Sanjay Leela Bhansali. By working like a dog. Okay, I know I’m getting so much attention in the industry because I’m Anil Kapoor’s daughter. But now I’ve done something on my own too. I can proudly say that my dad didn’t launch me. There’s a lot of self-respect in that.”
Agreed. But why isn’t she signing movies? It’s certainly not for lack of offers. She says she isn’t overtly ambitious. “I don’t want to sign four films because someone else has done so. I don’t crave Rs. 6 crore because someone else is already getting three. It’s so wrong. Being an actor is an art. And art cannot be done without honesty. It’s not just about making money. Okay, eventually you have to earn your bread and butter. But there’s more to acting than that.”
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