Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; February 22, 2018)

"It has taken me 10 years to work with my father,” says Sonam Kapoor, overjoyed to be sharing screen space with Anil Kapoor in Shelly Chopra’s Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga. The actor recalls watching him enact scenes when she would visit his film set as a child, never pausing to think that she would share the frame with him some day.

Having already shot for a week in Patiala, Sonam says of her father-cum-co-star, “I’m more excited than nervous to be working with him. We never interacted in a professional capacity, not even during the shoot of our productions Khoobsurat (2014) or Aisha (2010).” Considering the years of experience Anil brings with him, one can’t help but wonder if he gives her advice after a shot or helps her better a scene. “My father is never critical of me. My mother is [critical], but not him. He thinks Rhea [Kapoor, sister] and I are the best, and loves the way we handle our work. Dads are usually like that with their daughters,” she smiles.

The opportunity to perform with her father aside, Sonam has much to cheer about — her latest outing, Pad Man, has set the cash registers ringing. But the actor says that success, to her, isn’t just about box-office numbers. “To me, it’s the satisfaction of a job well done. Not many people get to live their passion. I have that privilege and have never taken it for granted. It is an amazing experience to be someone else for the camera, to make someone else’s mistakes, and empathise with their joys and sorrows. I am in a happy space currently.”

She insists that her championing the cause of menstrual hygiene doesn’t end with the film’s release. “I’m grateful to the viewers for coming out in such numbers to watch a film based on a subject that is considered a taboo in India. It signifies that we are ready to talk about things that have not been easy to discuss for ages. That is what movies do. If my voice can bring attention to a cause, I will gladly use it.”