With both her love-life and career looking up, Kareena Kapoor is positively glowing, finds Shubha Shetty-Saha
Shubha Shetty
this year brought many changes in Bebo's life. For starters, a winner in 'Jab We Met' has suddenly catapulted her into the top league. Is she expecting awards to follow the appreciation? She laughs, "Everyone's saying I should expect a few awards, but I'm just happy that the movie has done well and people are appreciating my performance. Even two months after the release of the film, I get text messages saying 'great work'. It makes me feel good."
Kareena had been lying low for the longest time before 'Jab We Met' happened. She says, "I truly wanted my work to talk. I know everyone around is indulging in PR exercises to keep themselves in the limelight. They go to parties and kind of manipulate their way through to get roles. Today good PR seems to have become the most important thing. I simply cannot do that. It is tough waiting for the right role to come your way, but I would still opt for that rather than just doing roles where you have to stand next to a super star, just to be a part of the film. That's not my scene. I would rather put my heart and soul into a role. God has been kind to me. I have been approached with meaty roles, always."
Kareena says she is the only female actor who never hesitated playing character roles. She says, "Doing a big project just for the sake of it —and then just standing next to a star as a role — is the easiest thing to do. I have chosen not to go that path, because I believe in myself. I also believe in taking risks. 'Jab We Met' has kind of changed the rules, because it did well despite being a small film and woman-centric. Geet (her character in the film) is the soul of the film." Kareena says even if she does a film purely for money, she will have no regrets as she is not answerable to anyone. "I am impulsive enough to do a film just because I want to make money at that point of time, but right now I don't want to do that. I have dabbled in everything and come out a winner. I think you are perceived just the way you want to project yourself. I am very confident of my abilities and I don't need to bow down to any dictats. I am very determined about that."
But now that work is happening at a fast pace, Kareena is pining for a holiday. "I am greedy for roles, and my next year is going to be exceptionally busy, with 'Golmaal 2', 'Kambakht Ishq' and one more film. I would love to go on a holiday and put my feet up. But my mom says now is the time to work hard, I can always holiday later," she says with a smile.
After Saif came into her life, she has given a huge hit. Would she call him her lucky charm? Laughing loudly she says, "If people want to believe that, so be it. But frankly, that would be taking the credit away from Imtiaaz and my hard work." Talking about Saif, people close to him say he is the happiest after he started seeing her…and she says coyly, "If Saif is happy, I am happy!"
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