Katrina Kaif has always been a bit of an enigma.
That said, in her latest interview with Vogue,the Thugs of Hindostan actress is finally opening up — about her personal life (“it’s non-existent” she says), career (she shares she’s always been a workaholic) and her thoughts on the #MeToo movement.
On Her Life
Talking about being single for a while now, Kaif shared she’s using the time to self-reflect, “Oftentimes, throughout my career there’s been such prominent talk about the friendships or relationships I’ve had in my life, so that when you speak or when you’re spoken about in the media it’s in the context of another person and with another person.”
“What human nature does is that when we have something, or someone, to focus on, we can also shift a lot of our attention there, so we are not really forced to look at ourselves in any great perspective. We’re able to kind of shift a lot of responsibility—on decisions, for happiness, for entertainment and motivation. So now, when the sole burden of your life, what you’re doing, and your state of mind is on your shoulders because there’s nothing to distract you, that is a very intense time.”
“It’s probably one of the first times in my life where I really had only myself to focus on. And when you focus on yourself, often, the first thing you realise is that you don’t really know yourself. It’s like a period of not knowing, a period of being uncomfortable because you’re seeing yourself in your raw form without embellishments and then accepting that you don’t really know who you are. I now see it as a blessing because I was able to recognize my patterns, thought processes and things that I had been so sure of my whole life. I could see them from a whole different perspective,” she adds.
On Her Career
Kaif has built a career with her dedication, working with the leading actors like SRK and Amir Khan, she has established herself as a force to be reckoned with.
“In terms of the work I’m doing, especially this year, it has been wonderful. Because I’m really enjoying the process of creating. It began with Aanand L Rai’s Zero, and then with Bharat—even though it came to me out of the blue, the process has been wonderful. I’ve enjoyed learning, and I feel incredibly happy at work when I feel like I’m learning something new.”
“I’ve always made instinctive choices and respected work relationships while choosing projects. It’s supremely important for me to feel happy when I’m at work, because filmmaking is a fairly intimate process. There is a lot of personal involvement, and the most important thing is that you want to feel respected at work. Sometimes people think this person can’t tell but I can always tell—I think most women can tell the way a person’s attitude is towards them. A person can be speaking all the right words but you can always sense the underlying emotion.”
On The #MeToo Movement
Speaking about respect, she also revealed that while she’s been “incredibly fortunate” to not have been on the receiving end of inappropriate behaviour or unpleasant incidents, the #MeToo movement is “shaking up the industry” and has her full support.
“There won’t be a single person who is not checking themselves and if they have ever behaved like this. They’re probably feeling fear as we sit and talk about it. And when fear comes into it, there will definitely be behavioural corrections. It will also make it more taboo to make subtle comments and gestures in jest. But it exists across industries, and we all know that the world over there is a huge discrepancy in the amount of power women hold in the workplace as compared to men. That makes me think about the women who aren’t in big cities and not in a position to speak out or defend themselves. I do hope it will trickle down to other spheres—it’ll take time, but this is a start.”
The article originally appeared in Images
