She is young, vivacious and has played the love struck romantic in many films, but Sonam Kapoor confesses that she has not been lucky when it came to love in real life.
Born into a well-know family, she is the daughter of actor Anil Kapoor and former model Sunita and was said to be dating I Hate Luv Storys director Punit Malhotra and was also romantically linked to her Mausam co-star Shahid Kapoor.
But in a candid confession, she said: “My love life has been quite unsuccessful. I am single, but I think human beings have the capacity to love.”
“I don’t think you can fall in love only once. You can fall in love over and over again. We have the capacity and we have the heart to do that,” Kapoor said.
Her real life romance has not been inspiring, but on the screen she has been part of several love stories, including her debut film Saawariya as well as mushy dramas like I Hate Luv Storys and Aisha.
Her forthcoming film Raanjhanaa also belongs to the same genre. In the film, she will be seen romancing southern star Dhanush, who is debuting in Bollywood with the Anand L. Rai-directed movie coming out Friday.
When asked about her chemistry with Dhanush in Raanjhanaa, Kapoor said: “Chemistry is not between two people, it’s between two characters. Chemistry gets created by moments. For example, Shahid and Kareena had done many films together, but people never spoke about their chemistry. But when they did Jab We Met because of the scenes and their roles, people liked it.”
She insists that chemistry can be created through “acting, scenes and the way the director projects it. Chemistry is a very overdone, overspoken thing”.
Dhanush is not familiar with Hindi and he struggled with the dialogues, but Sonam feels that when it comes to emotions, language has never been a barrier.
“He is very quiet and modest... he worked hard on the language. When it comes to emotions, you don’t need a language to express it. He expressed himself beautifully. He is such a creative person,” she said.
Dhanush — son-in-law of South Indian superstar Rajinikanth — spoke of his co-star in equally glowing terms.
“Sonam didn’t teach me Hindi. Sonam was very patient and calm. She never laughed at me. You can not learn a language in a day. It takes lot of practice,” he said.
Although most of her films bombed at the box office, the actress doesn’t regret anything.
“I don’t regret anything because when I was doing films like Thank You and Mausam, I decided to do the films that satisfied me. I don’t look at films for their box-office success. I want that 20 years down the line, people should remember my films,” she explained.
28-year-old Sonam Kapoor made her acting debut with Bhansali’s Saawariya which flopped at the box actress.
After a string of flops including Thank You, Mausam and Players, Kapoor is now gearing up for Anand L Rai’s Raanjhanaa, where she will be seen essaying the role of a girl next door.
The 28-year-old is looking forward to two other big projects – Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and a Khoobsurat remake – besides a YRF untitled film opposite Ayushmann Khurrana.
In the Khoobsurat remake, Sonam will play a free-spirited girl and she says the film is the modern interpretation of Rekha starrer Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s 1980 hit.
On being grateful
“I may not be the number one movie star or my films might not be doing too good. I am grateful for what life has offered me. I have got a great family, parents are together, have a great sister, I get to holiday. All these things make me grateful towards life, for everything. I always say – have an attitude of gratitude,”
Sonam made her debut with Sanjay Bhansali’s Sawaariya in 2007 which bombed at the box office. After that she appeared in Delhi 6, which again failed to garner the attention of the audience. She achieved commercial success with her next film I Hate Luv Storys. However, her next releases - Thank You, Mausam and Players - again failed at box office.
On look glam — or not
“I love dressing up. I have people helping me with it. I am not going to take credit for that. I have a stylist, make-up and hair stylist. I feel I am lucky. I am grateful for this life that God has given me. I am happy as I am getting to do work that I want to do and enjoy doing it. Her upcoming roles in Raanjhanaa and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag call for less glamorous looks than those she had in Aisha and I Hate Luv Storys.
“While I de-glammed for these roles, there are others like where I am dressed up nicely. I think I look good without make up. Because the characters are real I need to be real. I don’t like wearing too much make up. I think people like me in de-glam roles, they like the simple side of mine in films and girls like me as a fashionista.”
On Abhay Deol
“I think we have great chemistry, people love watching us on screen together. He and I as actors are kind of similar. We know each other’s timing. We share a good relationship. I love working with him. There were issues that had happened. But he is a friend of mine. We both know what is happening in our lives. Abhay and me are same in the sense that if we don’t like anyone then we won’t work with that person again.”
The pair acted together in Aisha, but Deol then publicly expressed displeasure with the way the film was being made. The film was produced by Kapoor’s father, Anil Kapoor.
“If I did not like him then I would not work with him again. Abhay and me were friends from the beginning. We both never had any issue. The matter was between Abhay and my dad and PVR,” she said.
On her Raanjhanaa script
“The writer, Himanshu Sharma writes very catchy dialogues. The trailer tells you all about it and dare I say, the dialogues are very local in taste. I loved speaking them. Like, ‘Ek thappad marungi toh saari rangbaazi nikal jaegi ek minute mein (One slap will put you in your place)’. You rarely get to mouth such dialogues and I enjoyed the ‘dialogue-baazi’ in the film.”
On playing a 15-year-old girl
“I was a bit nervous about going out in a uniform with hair tied into two plaits and [I used to wonder] how people would react to it and how will I perform in front of so many people. (On the) First day we gave two shots and the audience there started clapping and shouting. So that raised my confidence.
On crying
“I go so deep into the character that I make myself unwell. It becomes disturbing at times. I have taken training for acting for a year. I can never cry with the help of glycerine. Whenever I cry on screen I cry naturally, if I am happy, I am genuinely happy on screen. I am a director’s actor. If my acting is appreciated, it’s because of the director, and if it’s not appreciated, it’s all again because of the director. I will keep giving them takes till they are convinced.”
On directing
“Apart from being an actress, I want to direct films. Maybe this will happen after ten years.
Before starting her career as an actress, Kapoor worked as an assistant director under Sanjay Leela Bhansali for Black, which was released in early 2005. Kapoor’s sister Rhea is producing the film, her second movie after Aisha.
