My priorities are different: Kareena Kapoor Khan

Kareena Kapoor Khan is in a happy state of mind today. After marriage, though there were multiple projects that were announced with her, due to some or the other issue, they haven’t really taken off. The two films that became a talking point after her exit were Zoya Akhtar’s Dil Dhadakne Do and Karan Johar’s Shuddhi.

Ranbir Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor were to share screen space as siblings, something that Zoya had envisioned while writing the draft. But with no regrets, Kareena explains her stand, “My priorities are different today. I am married and I just can’t go out. I would like to give time to my family. That’s why I refused Zoya’s film. I can’t be on outdoors for so many months.”

She has wrapped the shooting of Singham Returns and the schedule of that film worked out with so smoothly that it matched her priorities. She explains, “I want to do a film, which will work according to my time schedule. I was very clear about that.”

A heroine is generally referred to as a “glam doll”, in movies where the hero ends up being in your face almost throughout the film. However, Bebo who is one of the biggest commercial actors today, uses a different benchmark to define her journey in the industry. “I love commercial masala movies. But most of them I have worked in, I had a lot to do than just being there, say like a Bodyguard, and I enjoy doing them.”

Driving her point further, she elaborates, “Be it Zeenat Aman or Parveen, they were the biggest superstars of their time and they were always part of commercial cinema.” And what about the remuneration? She says with a smile, “I get paid very well and I have no complaints. If it’s a big-budget movie and they can afford a superstar, they can also afford me.”

The choices that Kareena Kapoor made during the start of her film journey were considered very brave and it could have been disastrous had those not worked. It became all the more difficult for someone who comes from a family that held the torch of superstardom for years.

“I come from a family where I wanted to prove myself as an actress. I was 21 when I played the role of a prostitute in Chameli and then again played it in Talaash.” Her career decisions, she believes, have been made without keeping an eye on what other actresses have been doing. “The comparison is unfair and boring. What works for another actress, might not work for me,” she says.

Her pairing with Ajay Devgn has been a success at the box office, be it in an intense role in Omkara or in comedies like Golmaal Returns. Kareena says, “Rohit (Shetty) was an assistant director on Suhaag (Ajay, Karisma) in the ’90s and we all know each other since then. With Ajay, it’s beyond films.”

Like some of her earlier choices, will Kareena opt for another offbeat film at this stage of her career? “Why not?” she says and then adds, “But it won’t be just for the sake of it. It will not be for the sake of the director either. The script has to be good. I don’t have to prove it to anyone today.”