By Hindustan Times
Newly married Kareena Kapoor confesses about her love for Aamir Khan and the way huge a fan she is. In a candid interview, the actress also talks about her film Talaash and her equation with Rani Mukerji.
Why did you select to do Talaash?
Kareena: When Aamir first called me, he refused to show any information about the plot. Even in the course of the first two meetings, he simply asked if I USED TO BE free. I said, 'Yes, but for which film?' Then I BELIEVE he finally decided to trust me and told me that Reema (director Reema Kagti) was engaged on a movie called Talaash.
There was already buzz across the film, but for me, it was about working with Aamir. I'm an enormous Aamir Khan fan! I LIKE him. Saif also knows this.
Reema, why did you decide Kareena?
Reema: I ASSUMED she was the most efficient person for the part. It is a role that needs a large number of gravity and guts. I BELIEVE she has those qualities.
With two big actresses in a film, is there insecurity about whose role is bigger?
Reema: Rani and Kareena are extremely accomplished and really secure actors. They do not function that way. Apparently, Aamir didn't conform to do the film while you first approached him.
Reema: It isn't like he didn't agree. He was doing Ghajini (2005) at that time, and he knew he was going to do Dhobi Ghat (2010) next. He was also going to take a year off after that. He was like, 'I'm not likely to listen to any script for the following two years'. So we didn't even get a possibility to narrated it to him.
Once Aamir came on board, nothing seemed tough. The best way to get a film made is to get Aamir to mention yes to it.
Why was there this kind of long gap between your last film (Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd; 2007) and Talaash?
Reema: It was a forced sabbatical. I AM NOT an excessively patient person. So it wasn't easy. But that is what a writer-director's life is like. Sometimes, things take off, sometimes they do not. I TRULY believed that this was a narrative that had to be told. So I stuck to it.
Kareena, Rani, what was it like for you two to interact again, after Mujhse Dosti Karoge! (MDK, 2002)?
Kareena: Unfortunately, we have no shots together, aside from the promotional song. Professionally and personally, we share a ravishing relationship. It has been 10 years since MDK. I DO NOT call her on a daily basis. But on every occasion something important happens in my life, there's always a text from her.
Rani: After I see Kareena today, I'm happy with her. The way in which she has built her career is astounding. She has grown from strength to strength. I adored her in Jab We Met (2007). She was always beautiful, but now as Mrs Khan, she has become much more beautiful.
Kareena, are you content together with your performance within the film?
Kareena: If an actor is content together with his or her performance, 90 per cent of the time, others will adore it too. However the media thinks, I don't have done this, or I will need to have done that better. Maybe that's why I FINISHED watching my films (laughs).
How do you select roles?
Kareena: The film could be a potboiler, or it may be a song-and-dance kind; I enjoy both. On an extraordinary occasion, you return across an ideal script. After which you do not mind just being a part of it. I mean, even Brad Pitt did Babel (2006); I DO NOT BELIEVE he had an excellent role.
I also must credit Saif for teaching me how you can choose better roles within the last five years. He says the problem with us actors is that we're always in search of the principle role. But sometimes you could do a specific role, even supposing it is the smallest of parts.
Do you read every script that you simply get?
Kareena: I DO NOT read scripts.
Reema: You simply keep narrating the script and make loud sounds to wake her up.
Kareena: Such a lot of times, within the first 10-15 minutes of the narration, you're thinking, 'Oh my God, I NEED TO sit through this?' Eventually, I just get busy with my phone.
Reema: At some point, every actor tries to stifle a yawn. But they do it politely.
Rani, you've become choosy about your roles of late.
Rani: I DO NOT BELIEVE it's about being choosy. I WOULD LIKE to make myself happy, and if a job doesn't challenge me, I DO NOT do the film. If I AM GETTING bored myself, I DO NOT expect the audiences to get excited.
What's so challenging about Talaash?
Reema: I BELIEVE Rani has probably the most difficult part within the film. Aamir and Kareena's parts are more within the author-backed role format. I FEEL she (Rani) has taken her character to a different level. It's beyond what Zoya and that i had written.
How did you prepare for this role?
Rani: I just kept seeing what Kareena was doing in relation to preparation. Because she was doing such a lot (laughs).
Kareena: You mean, watching TV, happening holidays and eating food? That was my preparation.
Why is your individual life this kind of closely guarded secret?
Rani: My life will never be a suspense story, however the media has made it into one. Meri life ek khuli kitaab hai, but mere dosto aur parivaar ke liye (My life is an open book, but just for my friends and
family). I BELIEVE it's my responsibility to maintain my personal life personal for the sanity of my parents.
Rema: I FEEL she (Rani) has taken her character to a different level. It's beyond what Zoya and that i had written.
Recently, in an interview, you said that you simply were egoistic about your roles…
Rani: Yaar, tum log jab interview likhte ho, baat twist karke kuch bhi bana dete ho (You guys twist our words for your interviews). I said, 'I am egoistic as an actor'. The answer's in that interview, but you will not consult with that you really want. gossip. I USED TO BE asked if I'd have liked to do Kareena's role, and that i said I MIGHT like to. However the point is that as an actor I'm egoistic and would really like to do the role that the director involves me with, because she has already visualised me like that.
Reema: It's an unfair question. People, who're accomplished and secure, don't believe like that. They do not consider what's mine and yours.
Rani: It's about framing the question right. But what makes for a really perfect copy is a headline like, 'I am egoistic.'
Have you seen Reema's earlier film, Honeymoon Travels?
Kareena: I HAVE NOT seen Honeymoon Travels. Main ab tak honeymoon pe hi nahi gayi hoon, yaar (I HAVE NEVER even been on a honeymoon yet).
Rani: I'VE watched it; I BELIEVED it was very entertaining.
Reema, how do making a decision what sort of films to make?
Reema: I DO NOT decide the genre. It's more in regards to the concept that I MUST fall in love with. In both my films, it was the concept result in the premise.
Which certainly one of your two films was more challenging?
Reema: I think, Honeymoon Travels, as it was my first film and that i got into it without knowing whether I'LL manage it or not. I realised the challenge after I was with all 13 actors at the sets. I USED TO BE intimidated, but then I more or less slipped into all of it. of them are talented people.
What's your next film prone to be like?
Reema: The following one I'm writing with Zoya (Akhtar) has elements of comedy. But it's essentially a drama.
In the promos, Rani looks healthier than Kareena.
Reema: I encouraged my actors to eat well because I WOULD LIKE them to transcend their stardom and become middle-class people. I USED TO BE encouraging her (Rani) to position on weight. I asked Rani to not diet.
Rani: Yeah, she did ask me.
Reema: In fact, I even asked Kareena and Aamir to not diet. I BELIEVE individuals who diet don't seem to be real people and do not look genuine.
Have you seen the text message that may be supposedly revealing the film's ending?
Rani: I heard about it; it just helps the film a lot.
