Katrina Kaif: I’ll never work with Vicky Kaushal!

#KatrinaKaif is one of the most beautiful and successful actresses of #Bollywood. Katrina is a British national, who was born in Hong Kong and her family later migrated to London. She started as a model in her teenage and was keen on a Bollywood career. Her first film Boom was a dud and she tasted success after doing #SalmanKhan starrer #MainePyarKyunKiya. Later she gave back to back half a dozen hits with #AkshayKumar. Though she always was criticised for her Hindi with a British accent, now she is quite fluent in Hindi. She recently married Bollywood’s young and upcoming superstar #VickyKaushal. Her first film post pandemic, #PhoneBhoot got released earlier. Our senior editor Keerti Kadam interacted with her a while ago and here are excerpts from it.

First of all, congratulations on your marriage. How is this new phase in life?
First of all, thanks a lot. After marriage life has changed drastically. In fact Vicky has brought calmness in my life. I think a lot, in fact, I overthink. I used to be always worried about what will happen in future etc. Resultantly I used to be constantly stressed. After Vicky came into my life I have learnt, well almost, to be calm in all situations. He has brought peace in my life. Best part about Vicky is that he lives in the present and is always positive. He likes to chill and laugh and face any situation peacefully. The serenity he possess is outstanding, which, of course, is rubbing on me. After he came in my life, my life has received a stability. We are poles a apart, but as they say, opposites attract, we are the prime example of that.

After marriage I observed a ‘Karva Chauth vrat’. I understood how difficult it is to be without food for the whole day. By the early evening I was very hungry. But it’s tradition and Vicky and his family are all very traditional. So I go along and I am liking it. Moreover Vicky loves him family, and he is important to his family. So keeping family together is important and I definitely respect that and take time out for all the customs. So after marriage, things are balanced and organised.

Post-marriage how you and Vicky manage personal and professional lives?
Marriage is a big change in anyone’s life, you are now sharing your life with a person and you’re living together. It’s been really beautiful, wonderful. He has been away a lot on shoots, as have I, so I think that’s always the thing with any two actors who are in this profession where there is constant travel, you do get less time together. Priorities didn’t change. It’s just that over a period of time different things have different priorities. We got married and we both got back to our work which is really important as an actor, but it was quite difficult for me because I had honeymoon in my head. That’s a very special thing. In that space I had already worked out how I’ll be spending time with Vicky. But we both are professionals and had to fulfil the commitments.vicky is just a very, very wonderful person, and I think it’s nice to have a person like that in my life.

Has the criteria of choosing a role or a film changed after marriage?
Film in totality is what I look at first. Criterion for choosing the roles has nothing to do with marriage. Obviously something in life has changed within me after marriage. I am not the same as I was during New York. Or in the same mind space when I was doing Bharat. I am not in the same head space as I was during Zero. So as we change, as humans it is very important for an artist to allow that change. Imagine if am going to repeat something it’s not going to appeal the audiences, so for me, what I’m doing right now is little bit of a self exploration. I am thinking a lot, spending time with myself but I have no answers yet.

I am doing Sriram Raghavan’s Merry Christmas which also has Vijay Sethupathi. That film has taken life out of me. In the sense that while I was doing Phone Bhoot everything around was filled with laughter and masti. But it’s opposite on Merry Christmas sets. I get a feeling that I am in a washing machine. Film like that takes a lot from and also gives back a lot. It’s a bilingual and I do dialogues in both Hindi and Tamil. As for Vijay Sethupathi, he creates magic. He’s so effortless that you’ll never know that he is acting. He is a phenomenal artist. Also working with Sriram Raghavan was always on my bucket list. I have learnt a lot during this film. About doing scenes, I feel that, if I do not feel the scene or if you do not get pleasurable feeling, then you haven’t given enough to that scene. This mantra I follow for each and every film.

You mentioned about having a blast while shooting your last release Phone Bhoot, tell us something more about it.
Phone Bhoot is more of a comedy flick than a horror film. It is not an out and out horror film. It’s actually a comedy, a supernatural comedy, where you have your fun, your quirks and all that. Primarily for me, this one is just a comedy film. We had a lot of fun. We did a lot of masti. We had a blast on the sets of Phone Bhoot and all of us used to literally look forward to being there. A fantastic script written by writers who are great film buffs with pop culture references and the jokes and gags throughout the film. We had a fantastic team, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Ishaan Khatter were full of energy all the time, ready to try new things and come up with brilliant ideas, improvising all the time. I simply loved Gurmmeet Singh’s (who has directed Mirzapur) senses of humour and most importantly experience that he brought in.

You have, earlier, done comedy. Was it difficult to act in a comedy horror movie?
No, not at all. I have done comedy genre movies like Namastey London, Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani, Mere Brother Ki Dulhan etc. Phone Bhoot do have different kind of humour and I enjoyed doing it. It was a mad, quirky comedy. I am an actor and I should be comfortable doing all genres.

Are you scared of horror movies?
I am damn scared of horror films and I wonder how I ended up doing Phone Bhoot. I confess that I can not watch horror films. I wouldn’t even try. While surfing if I see anything horror I quickly change it. I don’t even see scary visuals. I believe in the supernatural for sure. There’s definitely a parallel universe out there. There are all types of spirits and all sorts of ghosts. You have your sweet ghost, you have your innocent ghost, you have an angry ghost, pissed off ghost, you have all kinds. And if I watch it I am messed up at night, I can’t sleep. If I sleep, I get hectic dreams. So I avoid watching anything horror or even gory violence. I watch only positive stuff.

Do you discuss scripts with Vicky?
Yes. Of course. Post marriage all the couples take joint decisions. About yes, we do discuss almost everything but about selection of scripts, it’s my decision. Both of us do not interfere in each other’s film choices. Yes, we discuss like one needs to just talk it out with someone. But both of us respect each other’s decisions.

Tell us about your upcoming projects?
I recently wrapped up shoot of Merry Christmas with one of my favorite directors Sriram Raghavan. I’m blessed to work with him. It was a wish that came true. Merry Christmas is going to be a wonderful film. Then there is Maneesh Sharma’s Tiger 3 co-starring Salman Khan. ‘Tiger’ has always been a very exciting franchise and exciting series. The film will also star Emraan Hashmi as an antagonist. While Merry Christmas will hit the theatres on December 23, 2022, Tiger 3 will release during Diwali next year.

You and Vicky are both actors. Any plans to work with together?
I have told Vicky that I’ll not work with him. (Smiles) Actually Vicky is ‘stupendo-fantastically-fantabulous’ actor. I’ll tell you an incident. I was reading a scene for a film. He came around and offered help asking, ‘should I do other character’s lines?’ He read the three page scene and after glancing at it for a few seconds kept the script aside. I asked him what happened? He said I am ready, lets do it. I was pleasantly shocked that he can memorise dialogues just glancing at them wherein I take couple of days to do the same stuff. That time I told him that I won’t do any film with him. His level of ease and spontaneity is marvellous and I admire that. Seriously speaking if any dynamic scripts comes along where both the characters are strong enough, we may do it.

You have a good bond with your in-laws, would you like to say something?
Though I can not speak, I love and understand Punjabi very well. Almost 80%. At home Vicky and his brother Sunny often speak in Punjabi and I completely understand the language because I think I have worked with Akshay and that has helped because he too converses a lot in Punjabi. Again there are a lot of Punjabi songs in our movies. So, I don’t know the reason but, I have always had an affinity towards that language.