I can make jeans, T-shirt look like couture: Kareena Kapoor Khan

By Radhika Bhirani

Mumbai, Feb 4 (IANS) Actress Kareena Kapoor Khan believes reinvention -- in her personal and professional life -- has driven her survival as a star in showbiz. She says she has the self-confidence to make even everyday fashion look like couture.

Kareena, in an interview to IANS here, said she finds her elder sister Karisma "more of a fashion icon" between the two, without a second thought.

"Most of the time you will see me in a jeans and a T-shirt. It's besides the point that I can make jeans and a T-shirt also look like couture.

"I know I have that... I can... It's just that I don't like dressing up," she said, just ahead of a glamorous showstopper moment at the Lakme Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2019 here on Sunday night.

From her maiden film "Refugee", which saw in her in bare minimum make-up, to Karan Johar's "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham..." -- in which he presented her as the uber stylish Pooja aka Poo -- Kareena has been fearless about trying different looks.

"It's (the fearlessness is) a part of being successful... Actually I was trying to do different kind of stuff at a very early stage. In fact, I'd say I was very experimental when I was 19.

"'Refugee' was a very experimental launch. It was not the typical glamorous girl. But again, I think there would have been no fun if there was no fear or excitement.

"It is good to be a fearless actor, but it is good to have a little bit fear so that your performance level is always high," added the actress.

Reinvention is something she takes seriously.

"If I can't reinvent as a person, I cannot be a better actor. The reason I feel that I have been in this business through decades and still been here is only because of reinvention.

"To constantly reinvent as a human being is so important," averred the actress, for whom marriage and motherhood have been life-changing.

"They have made me and my thoughts so much better than what what they were, say 10 years ago.

"Just sometimes not doing so much work, cutting out on travelling, taking a break and not really being a part of the Bollywood herd... A lot of things in my life that I have chosen to do are a part of me reinventing," she said.

The actress, who came up with "Veere Di Wedding", a coming-of-age story on female bonding last year, said she is glad that subjects and scripts are being reinvented.

"'Veere...' was a revelation. We have always spoken about male friendships, but we had never seen what female bonding is like. So I think in a way it took it forward in terms of content," Kareena said.

Steering the conversation to her upcoming film "Good News", which is on surrogacy, she said: "It's a topic which not many people will touch upon, but of course it's in a commercial space. It's a lot more funny.

"But we have to keep those dynamics in mind. The idea is to keep entertaining your audience, but with more content-based films."

She will also be a part of Karan Johar's period drama "Takht".

"The entire ambience and setting will be so different. Besides that, I haven't worked with Karan in many years... He has grown as a director from strength to strength and I am a very different actor today. So it will be very interesting."

(Radhika Bhirani can be contacted at radhika.b@ians.in. She was in Mumbai on an invitation by LFW organisers.)