Vogue Cover Story Featuring Sonam - September Issue | Inside scans

Unlike the new generation of Bollywood actors, Sonam Kapoor didn't just open a window into her life via social media, she let the floodgates open. This is not about age. She's 29, not 21. It's about image. When, like her, you've got four and a half million people hanging on your tweets and 5,00,000 Instagrammers watching your life in pictures, the smartest thing to do is not put on an act. As a result, millions of feeds now feature Kapoor's candid point of view on life, in all its princess glory.

The courage to be yourself, whatever you are, is the main reason Kapoor says she took on Khoobsurat, a Disney remake of the 1980s romantic comedy starring Rekha, releasing this month, produced by her father Anil Kapoor, her sister Rhea Kapoor and UTV Motion Pictures' Siddharth Roy Kapur. Khoobsurat has Kapoor playing the misfit Dr Mili Chakravarty, a quirky physiotherapist practising in a house of uptight royals. To her credit, Kapoor's Mili is an original. As was Rekha's Manju, a role for which she won her first Filmfare Best Actress Award in 1981. "Being an original is the whole reason I did this film," Kapoor says. "It's a Disney film for kids and I feel many young people today conform to what society thinks is the right thing." She offers her own life as an example. "I'm not rebellious. But I am who I am. I like to speak the way I speak and wear what I like to wear." In an industry where "it's so easy to forget who you are," she considers this a personal victory. "For example, some say that if I dress a certain way people will think I'm sexy and if I'm sexy then I'll be successful. But to me that's unnecessary. Because people only follow originals. See, if you look back"and you have to learn from history, right?"you see people who've been successful have always been... different. They've always had a certain idea of who they are. And it's not only about success, it's also about happiness."

The process of getting to know herself was much aided by the circumstances of her childhood and education. Kapoor joined United World College in Singapore when she was 15. "It's so easy to be a teenager in Singapore," she recalls. "Because you can make mistakes and still be safe. It's a safe city and you're stupid at that age, you know? I wanted to get a tattoo at 15, pierce my tongue, pass out somewhere wasted." And did she? "I did everything. Oh, I did EVERYTHING. I was 17 when I graduated. I was very confused at the point when Saawariya happened [in 2007]... I think Delhi-6, a year later, is when I knew that movies is what I wanted to do. But I was still a little confused." ByRaanjhanaa, in 2013, Kapoor had experienced all the options available to a young actress in Hindi cinema and by then she had also found some confidence in who she was. "I realised what drives me is to do things that are different. Raanjhanaa is an original story and Zoya is a character that had different shades. I could do something with the character. She is not, like, a loser... not like a commercial heroine wearing short sequinned dresses and dancing around." Working with producer and director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (on Delhi-6 and then Bhaag Milkha Baag) gave Kapoor a sense of true collaboration. "I feel like I can be more of an artiste with him. Acting is an art and I want to be an artiste, desperately. I'm not somebody who is trying to act till 32, and be, like, the most successful person ever, then get married and eff off. I want to create people with my emotions and my body language."

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw_TxeeCrOM[/YOUTUBE]

https://www.vogue.in/content/sonam-kapoor-cover-story-september-2014