Reena Kapoor:'ghas-phus khaane wali'

Eat light and stay fit!

Her soft, innocent look is a sure magnet, and she perhaps knows it. And that bonbon smile needs no justification after a while. TV actress Reena Kapoor is the typical Indian face that you would imagine Rajashri Productions to work with. In fact, the well-known production house started off its TV production wing by launching Reena, for the daily on SaharaOne, Woh Rehne Waali Mehlon Ki. Rounding off a year now in May-end, the serial has made a difference to the channel's viewer chart.

Sitting at Intercontinental The Grand's Coffee Shop in New Delhi, Reena is all smiles: "I sometimes have to tell myself that my name is Reena and not Rani, the serial's protagonist." Obviously happy at the new feeling of recognition that greets her on the road, she orders "a very light lunch" that includes a vegetable soup, some bread and "some cheese-based accompaniments", and settles down to talk. "Acting has always been my hobby and suddenly it has become my profession. When this role came up, I thought I have the talent and the confidence required for it, so why not give it a shot? Now on looking back after a year, I feel it was worth it more because I didn't have to struggle much to get it."

Broccoli soup

The soup arrives and so do the accompaniments. One spoonful of the soup and Reena comments, "Quite yummy. The taste of broccoli is dominant and that is interesting." For the last three years, she says she has been a vegetarian "not on religious grounds but just because being vegetarian has its benefits health wise." But that doesn't stop her from trying out different kinds of cuisine, she highlights.

"I don't get much time to go to the kitchen because Woh Rehne Waali... is a daily and the shooting hours are long but whenever I can take out time I cook my special vegetarian fare for my family." Reena also claims in the same breath: "I can cook some amazing vegetarian Chinese stuff. But my mushroom chawal and rajma-chawal are particularly appreciated."

Flashing that lovely smile, she adds, "But to a non-vegetarian, all these specialities don't mean much. I am often discounted as ghas-phus khaane wali." But for such a person, she has a line ready, "I want to tell them that you don't need chicken and eggs to survive."

Eat to live

Born and brought up in Mumbai, Reena did a few plays all for the love of the experience but never went to a formal training school. And now, she feels it has its benefits. "Formal training helps you in brushing up your talent no doubt but firstly, that spark has to be there in you."

Even as she finishes off her "light lunch", you are left wondering at her small meal for a long day of media interviews and late night return to Mumbai. "I eat only when I am hungry. It might look a small meal to you for a lunch but it has enough nutrients to carry me through the day," says Reena. And as the waiter intervenes to offer a sweet dish, she says a polite no. For reasons you don't want her to repeat.