When you think Sonam Kapoor, you think Anil Kapoor's daughter, you think traditional, you think safe, sometimes too safe, even. But you'd be wrong, or only just scratching the surface. By her own admission, she has tried on many stereotypes for size and then discarded them preferring to be a little of all at once - a "chameleon" as she put it. Right from the time she walked in, to the close of our chat, she proved to have a right domino effect on all of my pre-conceived ideas about her.
To begin with, she was wearing a classic belted houndstooth shift, whose story she excitedly began to relate (Sonam relates almost all stories excitedly). She'd seen Gwen Stefani's L.A.M.B collection about two and a half years ago and fallen in love with her signature houndstooth dresses. Unable to purchase it at the time owning to the forbidding budgets, she scoured New York's vintage boutiques until she finally found a superb knockoff of an unbelievable USD 35 at a little store called Frock. "The lady at the store had to sit and cut off the threads!" she laughs, "this dress was that old and I love it!" She goes on to describe her style a little --- "I love vintage, grunge and boho. Depending on my mood, I could pull on a Che Guevara T-Shirt, a blazer, and skinny jeans." She's now aware that my brow has creased with the effort of imagining her in that outfit. I quickly straighten up and apologize, "I'm sorry, I didn't quite have you pegged for a fashionista (at this point my brain is beseeching me to just stop talking, and as usual my tongue is the last to copy orders). Um, maybe it's to do with all your press appearances -- you're always in very, er, played down, more traditional outfits?" I finish, embarrassed. She laughs, to my relief. "Well the events I attended demanded that I was dressed very formally and 'm not exactly a skin-tight gown kind of girl. Oh, and speaking of skin-tight dresses......" she takes off again, gushing to the stylists about her new Herve Leger vintage monochrome bandage dress. "It was a size four, but I just had to have it! I stuffed myself into it," she laughs. Who are her fashion inspirations? "Cate Blanchett is impeccable. Kate Moss is unbeatable when it comes to street style. Gwen Stefani does an awesome mix of grunge and old Hollywood glam. And Agyness Deyn -- she does androgynous so well! It's very, very feminine in a twisted way." Is it safe to assume that she's a fashion addict? "Oh, yeah! I'm a slave to fashion. Not designers so much, though. Like, I can go to a vintage store and come out with ugly plastic bags full of clothes, or go to Chanel and salivate over their dresses and tweed coats." And just like that, she goes back to discussing fashion with the stylists who are just as pleasantly surprised as I am.
Once I've managed to steer her back to our conversation, we turn to the subject of her incredibly famous dad. I ask her what it feels like to grow up being the daughter of a movie star. "It feels okay," she shrugs. I chuckle. I don't know what I expected her to say. "My mom is from a business family and was very firm about not wanting us to get carried away. We were kept away from dad's work. I have never ever gone onto my father's sets."
Ironic then that she plunged right into it at 21. How did this come to pass? "I was studying in Singapore and Rani (Mukherjee) came to visit me there. She told me she was doing Black with Sanjay Leela Bhansali and that I should come visit the set." When Sonam returned to India, she asked her father to have a word with Sanjay Leela Bhansali about letting her assist him on set. He said yes and the rest is history. The very first day she met him, her life pretty much changed. "I didn't know him and he didn't know me. He just said, 'You should be an actress.' and I said 'why?'," she laughs, "I was so naive! Sanjay said 'Have you ever seen your face? You're going to be my next lead'."
Two years later, she made her debut in one of the most talked about films of the year, alongside a stellar cast -- a project that a newcomer could only have dreamt of.
I cannot help it, I have to ask because I've met one too many stars with a bloated sense of themselves. "Do you think all of this would have been possible if you weren't Anil Kapoor's daughter?" She looks at me like I'm a little stupid. "Are you crazy! Of course not! If I wasn't Anil Kapoor's daughter, no one would pay me even half as much attention." Humble? Maybe. Refreshing? Definitely.
So did her dad critique her first performance? She smiles, "He was just flabbergasted when he saw the movie. He said to me, 'I've always knew you looked good, but I didn't know you could act!'" When she speaks of him, fondness drips off every syllable. "I'm just like my dad. We're both even tempered, obsessed with clothes and very chilled out. My sister always says that when both of you are talking, you don't talk to each other, you talk at each other. No one can understand what we're going on about, except us." Again those warm fuzzy harmonics on every syllable. I ask her if Anil Kapoor is a better father or a better actor. "A better father, any day," pat comes the reply. And then -- for I absolutely must it seems, be rather forthright -- I ask whether she feels strange seeing her father romance women close to her age, on-screen. "Not at all. When he's acting, I look at him as an actor and not my father. I'm able to make that distinction."
Another trait worth noting is that nothing about the Saawariya girl is stereotypically 'star kid'. But then that's just it: when you've just created a mental mould in which to place Sonam, she goes and surprises you again. "I'd pick reading a book over getting photographed at a party, any day." Speaking of books, I'd read somewhere that she's a huge Shakespeare fan. "Yes! Hamlet is my favourite play. It's like a full on hindi film! Everybody dies!" she says cheerily.
I've got the chuckles again, but I manage to recover in time for my favourite area of discussion -- weight, lots of it, and how to get rid of it. When Sonam first met Sanjay Leela Bhansali, she was about 90 kilos. by the time she began shooting for Saawariya, she'd lost more than 35 kilos. How on earth did you manage to get rid of all of it? I've spent the last year trying to lose five stubborn kilos. Do tell. Please?" She tells me the excess weight was a result of living in a boarding school, eating jumbo sized pizzas and washing them down with cola. "When I got back, I started eating like a normal person again," she laughs. "Now, instead of eating an entire pizza, I'll just eat a slice -- most days I'll eat healthy, timely meals. Oh, and I work out like a dog!" How does a gauche overweight 20-year-old feel when told by one of the country's leading film directors, that she's so beautiful he wants to cast her as his next lead? "It didn't sink in then. But it was a huge compliment!"
With that I really must conclude the interview. I know the stylists think they're being surreptitious, but I'm not one to miss the impatient tapping of their heels. I want to know more about Sonam, not the movie star, just the regular girl. "What is the one thing you know for sure, Sonam?" She thinks for a bit "Okay, I know I will never ever get involved with an actor!" Such a vehemence, how come? "A relationship needs a grounding factor, we can't both be flying in the air." It strikes me as an odd thing for an actor to say about actors. She goes on, "I'd be attracted to someone who is very, very sharp, who reads a lot and who is just a really nice person because it's very hard to find that these days." Too true, that. "Also, I really don't want a drama queen, I manage that quite well on my own." And finally, I ask her "Sonam without films would be?"
" Sonam," she says without missing a beat. It's wonderful to observe that fame hasn't tinkered with the ground beneath her feet, not one bit
Good to know she's got a head on her shoulders.
Music Corner
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