It starts as a murmur in your heart and then spreads in all over like a warm sunshine. The love you feel makes you almost avuncular when tender goslings grow up into stunning swans. You've seen them running around their parent's knees, come home from tuitions and then all of a sudden they appear like a whiplash on screen. The real world fades into oblivion and the world of make-believe makes you want to believe in the magic of the movies. Sonam tkaes you back to all things nice. She reminds you of Tabu in portions of her debut film Prem.

In Sanjay Leela Bhansali's bizarre and Salvadore Daliesque world of Saawariya, Sonam travels light. Her gamine face lights up the chimera. You wish the role had been better written though.

There was no equivocation. From the public, from the press. The film skipped a beat but the girl hit the right notes. The negativity surrounded the film. Sonam elicited positive vibes from the most recalcirtrant moviegoer:

The compliments gush forth. The legendary Waheeda Rehman tells her that at certain angles, Sonam reminds her of her youth. Sridevi tells her that she's a complete natural and is not self-conscious in front of the camera. Life's coming up sunflowers for the third generation Kapoor. She says, "I was completely star struck when Waheedaji told me I reminded her of her younger days."


Her Laughter rings out like those Feng-Shui chimes. And she yaks nineteen to the ninety. And she reads. Devouring Stephen King novels with as much felicity as she laps up with Bronte sisters. Now, this is certainly a first of sorts. I don't recollect any of the other Kapoors reading anything besides film trade magazines, "That's because I get those intellectual genes from my mother's side of the family," Sonam trills happily.

Can't recall any other heroine on the cusp of a showbiz career mentioning Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance.

As her father Anil Kapoor watched the reels of Saawariya unspool, he cried unabashedly. "You know, dad can't be objective about me. He and mom think I was born for the movies. But I'm just horrible. I'm always criticising him for his clothes etc. I'm going to mend my ways," she says somewhat chastended.

Her siblings Rhea and Harshvardhan too dont' seem like the regular multiplex generation. Rhea is in New York doing an acting course at the famous Stella Adler studio and in Sonam's words, "She's the intellectual one; she's the voice of wisdom. She's very English in her humour and terribly sarcastic. She will dabble in theatre. Her sense of comedy is fantastic. I think, she'll make a great stand-up comedian. But she doesn't want to do movies. My 17-year-old brother Harsh is a musician. He has too many girlfriends, they keep changing every two weeks. He's currently holidaying in New York with my sister. He looks like my dad, only with bigger eyes." She made her brother watch Requien for A Dream, So that he'll never ever dream of doing drugs."

Flowers, cakes and chocolates pour in from some anonymous fans. She receieves marriage proposels too. But there's no time for romance. Come December, she'll start shooting for Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Dilli 6. She's under strict instructions not to talk about films. But she's on an early to bed, early to rise regimen. No fried foods, no dark circles under her eyes. The offers are pouring in but daddy dearest has asked her to take it easy.

I wonder aloud if the rumours about her and Ranbir Kapoor being love are true. The profesional mask takes over. And yet there's an ingenuous touch, "Ranbir is my best friend. I was never in love with him nor was he with me. He's not my ex-boyfriend and we are not seeing each other either. I have no time for boyfriends yaar. Neither Ranbir nore I have any love life. Besides, my dad will kill me. Ha, ha, ha."

So did she love him in the towel-dropping sequence? "Yeah, Ranbir was hot in Jab se tere Naina. If you have a great body, why not flaunt it. Ranbir is a Greek God, he's too sexy. He looked so good. I loved him in the telephone sequence where he realises that Imaan is untraceable or may not even exist," she smiles at the memory.

So doesn't she want to date famous celebrities, cricketers? "Now why would I want to date a cricketer? I'd love to date Rahul Gandhi. I think he's hot."

And could she relate to her exasperatingly melancholic character in the movie? "I'm not melancholic and hysterical like Sakina at all. I'm a far happier person. Sounds like a cliche, but I've had the happiest childhood ever. Life was all about Nancy Drew and holidays and good food. Sakina in contrast hasn't seen the world, she's led a cloistered existance,"

And then she good-humoredly chides me, Listen, if you're trying to get me to say something negative about Saawariya, I won't. Because I love Sanjay sir and I love my movie. He keeps texting me any and every good thing that's said about me. Think about it yaar. Who gets a Sanjay Bhansali launch? It's a dream life dude." So does she hate current hottie Deepika Padukone, her current archrival? "Listen, I think she's lovely and a great dancer. I haven't seen Om Shanti Om but I'm sure she's superb yaar. I can't comment
on her acting. Why should I hate her at all? Please grow up.

She also tells me she's loooved Shah Rukh Khan ever since his motorbike introduction song in Deewana and is "totally obsessed" with Salman Khan. I'm being drawn into 21-year-old's la la land. Like two giggly school mates, we yak yak about the movies. She tells me she's dying to show off her Kathak skills and wants to do a 'full on masala movie'. She shows me notes to her siblings Rhea where she tells her to "kick ass not kiss ass." She doesn't read reviews because dad told her, "Yah toh depress ho jaaogi, ya dimaag kharab ho jayega. Dono baatein achchi nahi hain."

Sonam was made for the movies. For now, she's happily cosseted in the world of short stories by Somerset Maugham and the poems of Sylivia Plath. She dreams of writing her own movies someday and if I'm nice to her, she'll even show me some of her writings.

Kiss ass, she won't need to. Kick ass, she will.

Interview By: Jitesh Pillaai For Filmfare December 2007