Katrina Kaif has been a bit of an urban legend. Famously known to be tight-lipped, her legacy (besides a robust filmography) includes a stream of interviews that attempt to uncover her indecipherable personality but only leave viewers to conclude that she remains something of an enigma.
This frank, forthright, funny version of Kaif is disarming. Then again, it has been 15 long years of dodging frenzied paparazzi since the model-turned-ingénue made her debut with Boom (2003), and the Kaif I meet today, slowly feasting on a bowl of comfort food, isn’t bent on evading questions. She’s eager to talk, and eager to be heard—but on her own terms.
Over the years (and her 40-plus films), Kaif has played everything from innocent English rose to tough, ball-busting ISI agent. She’s come a long way from being dubbed over to acing the Hindi language, from being a wary dancer to being a student of the preternaturally gifted Prabhu Deva (for Thugs Of Hindostan), but still, like most under the cloud of celebrity-hood, she’s always been spoken of in the context of her romantic equations. Her casual meet-cutes have led to sensational headlines and her relationships have often made more news than her body of work. And she’s the first to acknowledge it: “Oftentimes, throughout my career there’s been such prominent talk about the friendships or relationships I’ve had in my life, so that when you speak or when you’re spoken about in the media it’s in the context of another person and with another person.” But what happens when, for the first time in a while, there is no other person?
Kaif is buoyantly looking to the future—whether it’s teaming up with a director-friend or finding a script she feels supremely passionate about so she can venture into production, or perhaps considering even crossing over (which she hasn’t aggressively pursued but isn’t opposed to either) as an actor. The self-confessed “goal-oriented” actor has always been quite the workaholic, citing her inability to say no to good projects as the reason for her busy schedule, but she’s now ready to sit back and enjoy the slow life, and perhaps even indulge herself with a two-month holiday.