Sonam Kapoor has done something that most other heroines of the present era show an intent of doing - insist on roles where she has something to do, instead of being mere eye candy. Barring her first film Saawariya (2007), which was disproportionately centred around co-star Ranbir Kapoor’s towel, she has always tried to be the pivot on which the film rotates. Whether she’s been successful in that remains debatable. What matters is that she’s gutsy enough to choose her own path in film after film. Such tenacity is laudable in an industry where people love to follow the general trend rather than deviate from it.
In Delhi 6 (2009), for instance, she played a headstrong girl Bittoo, who wants to make it big as a model and an actor and move away from the bylanes of old Delhi. In I Hate Luv Storys (2010) she was a plain Jane who is in love with escapist Bollywood fare. In Aisha (2010), she played a girl who believes she knows what’s best for everyone, coming close to playing an arrogant brat in the process. Her wardrobe in the film was supplied by the leading courtiers of the world, adding to her aura of a fashionista supreme. In Mausam (2011), she portrayed a Kashmiri girl Aayat, who is in love with an officer in the Indian Air Force. She came into her own with Raanjhanaa (2013), where she plays a gusty Muslim girl in love with a Hindu boy. She played someone who would do anything for love and wouldn’t hesitate to kill if thwarted. The layered role won her rah rahs from critics and the masses alike.
In Khoobsurat (2014), she took on an iconic role made immortal by Rekha and managed to give it her own twist. And in Dolly Ki Doli, she has taken it further by being the man in the film. She’s by far the bigger star than her co-stars, Rajkummar Rao, Pulkit Samrat and Varun Sharma and the success and failure of the film rests squarely on her petite but firm shoulders. Going by the promos, she plays a con woman who marries for moolah and absconds with the money on the first night itself. It’s an interesting premise and we’re sure she’s got the chutzpah to pull it off. To add to that comes the news that she’s doing the biopic Neerja based on the slain braveheart airhostess Neerja Bhanot.
She’s our cover girl this issue and has spoken straight-from-the heart about her career, affairs rumoured and real and life in general. Read on to know more about the brave actor who refuses to be a mere baby doll.