Television's most-dreaded journalist, Karan Thapar, met his match in Bollywood's most-adored face, Katrina Kaif
She was open and spontaneous but clear and consistent. Television's most-dreaded journalist, Karan Thapar, met his match in Bollywood's most-adored face, Katrina Kaif.
-You stand a chance for sure. I did a little research of my own...and when I found you've been to Cambridge and Oxford... I nearly called up to say I won't come. This is someone who has achieved more than me. So, maybe, I should interview you..."
Sparks flew as television's most-dreaded journalist, Karan Thapar, met his match in Bollywood's most-adored face, Katrina Kaif. And the audience at the India Today Conclave lapped up the mesmerising session of truth or dare on stage.
Not quite beauty and the beast, more like the devil lost his fire. She was beauty, for sure-dazzling in her simple grey suit. He was magnanimous in his over-hasty promise that his devil's "horns would be tucked inside". But as he tried to get a taste of her celebrity lifestyle, hear the raw truths behind scandals and secrets, dig into the dramas and melodramas playing out in her life, she surprised him. Artfully artless, she rattled along, open and spontaneous, self-deprecating about her success, rueful about her tendency "to say the wrong things". Under attack, she found ways to win: cajoling, cooing and complimenting him. And when she had the opportunity to attack, she did so with finesse and style:
-Katrina, I gather you grew up and lived in some 13 different countries?Was this a great education or a little unsettling and confusing?
-It may not have been the kind of education that, for example, you would have had, bookish and amazing knowledge. But it's life education. It's experience? He is laughing? It sounded like I have given him an insult. I haven't. I am in awe of him.
-You are so good at digs. I'll have to pick up a trick or two from you.
What happens when you expect a bubbling bimbette and find a wholesome, sparkling personality, driven by nuanced thinking and not impulse? When accused of being "diplomatic rather than truthful", Kaif talked about her credo: "A lot of people had put me in different categories where I would not have wanted to be and I felt hurt. So I told myself, 'I don't want to do that because I don't like it when it's done to me'." When asked about life at the top, she focused on the hard work behind glamour: barely 17, new to India, or without any knowledge of the language, she had floundered trying to find her way in Bollywood. All the more so because film dialogues were usually handed over to actors in Hindi and right before the shot: "You are needed to pick that up fast. And you never wanted to be in a position where the writers handed you a piece of paper and you couldn't read it." The first thing she learned to do was teach herself the language.
"I am not the sort of journalist you normally associate beautiful Bollywood actresses with. The devil in me usually frightens them far away," Thapar said at the start. No one thought of it as being a tad bit patronising, until the "devil" pronounced, charmed: "Brilliant answer, Katrina. I have never had a politician sitting in front of me and so skilfully avoid a question and yet so convincingly give it."
-Katrina, you are undoubtedly one of the most beautiful women in Bollywood. You have a boyfriend who is...
-If you say so? I have not said that.
Coherent, clear and consistent, she never gave him an inch: no sensational headline, no startling revelation, no outrageous blame game. No matter how difficult the question, Kaif could not be intimidated.
It's inspiring when someone pushes the boundaries of accepted stereotypes. It's memorable when someone forces others to step beyond the comfort zone of their own conventional thinking. It was a session for both.
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