As she launches her own fashion line, Gauhar Khan talks to us about the art of reinventing herself
Aastha Atray Banan (MID-DAY; March 25, 2018)

It's 2.30 pm in the afternoon and though actress Gauhar Khan says she is feeling under the weather, she looks fresh and excited. We are sitting at her office in Lokhandwala, where sister Nigaar, sitting nearby on a computer, is busy sending emails out. It’s been a busy six months for Khan who just came out with a fashion line of her own. On the wall behind the sofa, hangs a sign that screams, Gauhargeous, which is the name of the collection as well. “It’s been a mad six months, so I guess the excitement has got to me. But I clearly remember that in November 2016, I was sitting at a coffee shop alone and I wrote a note to myself and in that I said, I will start a fashion line, and well, here I am.”

We all know Khan through various avenues. She showed us she could dance in Jhalak Dikhla Jaa; she wowed us with nuanced performances in movies like Rocket Singh and Begum Jaan; she showed us she could be calm and graceful under pressure in Bigg Boss 7, could do musicals with her stint on Zangoora — the Gypsy Prince; and could also be glamorous and Kardashianlike in her reality TV show, The Khan Sisters. In an industry that could chew you up and spit you out, she has managed to cut clutter. “It’s a hard place to be. People said don’t do Bigg Boss, that’s what happens when people have nothing else to do; people said don’t do Rocket Singh, if you are not playing Ranbir Kapoor’s love interest; or, don’t shift to Gurgaon for Zangoora... I have realised you can only do what you can do. You can’t take anyone else’s path, you can’t do what other people think is right. So I decided, I am going to create my own path because that’s the only way I can be happy.”

Ask her the often-asked question, if she feels that she hasn’t got her due as an actress, and she is sorted in her reply. “People call and say ‘Gauhar, here is a role, and we want someone like you for it’. I am okay with not dancing around trees, because people like Vidya Balan and director Srijit Mukherji want me for specific roles, like the one in Begum Jaan. It’s a space I have made for myself.”

As we come back to the fashion line at hand, and talk fashion influences, Khan says that she owes her “style” to her mother. “We were always dressed by her, and dare we wear just anything. There were bows, buttons and clips to match every outfit.” Later, it was Rekha who shaped her aesthetic. “I love movies like Khoobsurat and Jhoothi and was taken in by her style — those plaits and polka-dot dresses. I gave her an award last year, and she actually knew who I was, and called me a diva. I cried on stage.”

In a market that is now flooded with celeb clothing lines, what Khan doesn’t want is a tie up with a retail outlet. Instead, she wants to eventually focus on having a store of her own. The designs, which follow her own clean, classy aesthetic, are a mix of basics and separates; only 23 pieces for now. “We may have limited pieces but we have thought of dressing curvy girls, as well as slender ones. For example, we were just talking about having a jersey dress, and we realised it won’t look good on every shape, so we said we will make it a loose-fitting one instead of a tight one.”

To end, we ask her who would she say is the Gauhargeous girl, and she laughs, “Good question! It’s someone who knows that she can express her mind through her clothes. She knows exactly who she is, and wants to show that off.”