After a brief hiatus, Kareena Kapoor will be back with the Shashanka Ghosh-directed Veere Di Wedding (VDW). The actor, who will be on screen after two years, says the filmis “special” because it is her first post pregnancy. Last seen in Udta Punjab (2016), Kapoor went on a maternity break when her son was born in December 2016. Eight months later, she was back on the sets. What made Kapoor sign on the dotted line for VDW was the “language of the film” that was “different from anything” she had done earlier. “It is unusual for me to be a part of a film like this. The audience is used to seeing me in commercial and big-budget, hero-heroine oriented ones. Here is a story about four best friends [that] explores the concepts of love and marriage,” she says explaining her choices. “I look for something that my filmography doesn’t have. My last film Udta Punjab was very different from my role in this film,” she says. Kapoor states that VDW, “is in a very commercial space” and that “This was the perfect time to make such a film given the current scenario of our country. I think we are ready for this kind of film,” explains the actor.
Embracing motherhood
The 36-year-old actor, who maintained her style quotient during her pregnancy and continued working on her endorsements and deals, loves this phase of her life. Kapoor is “enjoying motherhood to the fullest and believes that one has to “balance it out which is quite doable”. She talks about having a good support system, “which is very important and I am lucky to have that. I have decided that I will do only a film at a time. Acting is my passion, something I love to do and motherhood is a part of my life. At the end of the day, I would love to be with my child,” states the actor.
Kapoor elaborates that she would not have been able to raise her son without the support of her husband Saif Ali Khan. “I think today it is all about supporting each other. Saif and I are both working actors and at times, it gets tough. When I was doing VDW, he was also shooting, but he would try to get back home to be with Taimur. Now, he’s busy shooting for Navdeep Singh’s film and then the second season of Sacred Games, so I know that I can’t shoot a film until he wraps up his by October-November. We have to balance it out and I think it is a great way to do it.”
For a cause
Kapoor’s eyes light up when discussing her work with UNICEF. The actor has been has been a brand ambassador for the UN NGO, especially in regard to issues related to educating the girl child. The actor has already made field trips to Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and the North East and would like reach out to more people. “I didn’t get to complete my education and I wanted to encourage how important it is for children to complete their secondary education. It started with the discussion and opened up from there,” emphasises the actor.
