Sonam Kapoor On Why She Hates Interviews And Loves Sappy Letters

Somewhere in the regally-wrapped roll of taffeta and couture is one of the most self-aware celebrities you’ll ever encounter. From her social media strategy to her unswerving stance on sexism, the girl is essentially élan in a floor-length gown...

- Saumyaa Vohra

In a grand melee of visuals that brings to mind the Click, Flash! Carrie Bradshaw montage from the Sex And The City movie, Sonam Kapoor is glamour ne plus ultra in the flesh. The bright lights of the camera ricochet off her open smile and routinely shimmying limbs that can’t stay still as the French electro-jazz that’s playing slowly gets louder and more up-tempo. “I love this song,” is a phrase that turns into a catchphrase, while her face quickly melds to smoldering sobriety for each shot. It’s easy to believe the Sonam from the pictures. She’s the epitome of femininity in one, Godivaesque fire in the other. What happens between the frames seems less characteristic of the girl we ‘know’— an interesting farrago of happy dancing and quick, smart inputs. “But I am that goofball, really!” she laughs. “I’m just this hopelessly optimistic person who wants the world to be a utopia. I’m also terrible with being sexy—I’m very comfortable with my body, and I’m kooky, and luckily the camera captures the ‘accidental sexy’ in the middle of it all.” The fact that she keeps asking her team if they think she’s a ‘loser’ (and then spontaneously digs up and reads out an article she once wrote on how she’s ‘a mango snob’ and it’s ‘The King of Fruits’, cracking everyone up with her campy self-deprecation) proves her point.

She did manage to shed the screwball skin with success for Neerja, when it happened, though. “It seems like it’d be easier to play a real person, but it also poses as a frame of reference—so the comparisons never cease. But, to be fair, the media has been kind to me about it—they barely even speculate about my personal life!”