Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; May 24, 2018)

Four vivacious, bold, strong and fashionably correct women speak their mind unabashedly in Veere Di Wedding. With this film, Sonam Kapoor Ahuja set off on a journey with her sister Rhea Kapoor, and friends Kareena Kapoor Khan, Swara Bhasker and Shikha Talsania, with able support from producer Ekta Kapoor, to narrate a comingof-age story about women in different stages of their lives. In a conversation with BT, the newly-wed leading lady talks about how a film like this is a step towards changing mindsets, the misconstrued ideas of feminism and how she has made her stand on marriage and work fairly clear.

It’s just been two weeks since your wedding. Now that all the celebrations and ceremonies are done, is the feeling finally sinking in?
Yes, it’s been two weeks aur itne mein toh kuch pata nahi chalta. Meri toh mehendi bhi nahi utri hai abhi tak. Right after my wedding, I also went to Cannes and that was a lot of fun.

After a hectic wedding schedule, you went back to work right away and it seems that you will get a break only after the release of Veere…
Tell me about it; I am fatigued. Imagine my poor sister (Rhea). She was planning my wedding and the release of this film. It’s really exhausting. I have also made my stand on marriage and work pretty clear. Cannes is a lot of work, but it was going back to a familiar territory, which sort of calms you after something distinct has happened in your life. The lehenga that I wore over there was designed for my wedding reception that we didn’t end up having here. It looked good with my mehendi.

The Veere Di Wedding journey has had many ups and downs. How did you manage the production for so long? It must have been exhausting…
My sister had this idea of doing a coming-of-age film with four women, who are friends, across age groups where one of them is getting married and others are at different stages of their lives. About four years ago, after Khoobsurat (2014), Rhea roped in a writer duo to put the script together. Director Shashanka Ghosh was on board too. The film was written with Kareena, Swara, Shikha and me in mind. So, when Bebo got pregnant, Rhea was like ‘now what?’ Bebo said, ‘Take someone else’ which was not possible. We even tried incorporating her pregnancy into the script, but it didn’t work. The film has been through several things simultaneously, but as they say, all’s well that ends well. Look, we set out to make a film about friends and we couldn’t have worked with someone who wasn’t a friend. Since I know the girls so well, we didn’t have to work too hard on the camaraderie. Through this film, we have touched upon a lot of topics, but in an entertaining manner. Firstly, this is about four women who are not chasing the same man. Like men, even women get divorced; have to deal with sexism and commitment-phobia among other things. People should watch the film for entertainment, but also understand what is being said.

It’s not common to see four women leading the charge in a Bollywood movie. There’s no A-list male hero either. In that sense, your film is breaking many moulds…
Like Neerja (2016) and more recently Raazi (coproduction between Junglee Pictures and Dharma Productions), hopefully Veere… too will do well and we won’t have to talk about this anymore. We won’t have to discuss the sex of the lead cast. Unfortunately, it is a point of discussion today because of the way things have been. I mean A-list actresses like Katrina Kaif and Kalki Koechlin were a part of a boys’ film, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011). Preity Zinta was on top of her game when she agreed to a Dil Chahta Hai (2001), but we don’t have A-list heroes in our industry who agree to do good films like Raazi, Neerja, Raanjhanaa (2013), Khoobsurat or even a Veere Di Wedding. No one said yes. I don’t think they have the confidence to do that. My father (Anil Kapoor) did films like Beta (1992) with Madhuri Dixit and Laadla (1994) with Sridevi, but I haven’t seen anyone do that. He’s a different kind of person. He raised me to be a feminist. When I came into the industry, I was shocked with the way things were. I was raised very differently. My parents never made me believe that I was any different from my brother. When I came here, I saw we were not paid the same amount as the hero, and not given the same kind of rooms as the leading man. People had that ‘Woh hero hai’ mentality. In the 11 years that I have been around, things have changed, yet there is a lot of change that needs to happen.

Owing to your upbringing, are actresses like you becoming the game changers in the industry?
You know what? When my sister and I made Aisha (2010), we didn’t even realise that a film like that had never been attempted. If it had crossed our minds, we would have been really scared. Rhea was 21 then and I was 23. No one took us seriously, because they thought we were making a stylish film about three women and no one was even dying in it. To this day, people walk up to me and tell me that they liked Aisha, but at that time, only women gave it good reviews. After Aisha, I saw people react to Khoobsurat with a changed mind set. Today, even men are excited to watch a film like Veere Di Wedding. I know for a fact that even back then, men, however discreetly or in a closeted manner, enjoyed Aisha.

They were just ashamed to say it. Ditto with the intellectual women. It’s like heroines who were scared to admit that they are feminists because they probably think they need to grow a moustache and burn their bra. Some women think being a feminist will make them undesirable. Some people think that a welldressed and glamorous woman can’t be smart. Why is there a difference between being smart and dressing up? There are so many fashionable, beautiful and intelligent women around the world — from Frida Kahlo to Audrey Hepburn to Cate Blanchett. Beauty can be and should be celebrated. Don’t be ashamed of your womanhood because a man has put some ideas into your head.

In today’s time, feminism seems to be a misconstrued concept. For instance, just recently you were trolled on social media for adding Anand’s last name to your name. This is no indication that you are not a feminist; it is just a matter of choice.
Exactly! Having your father’s last name is patriarchal in itself. Anand decided to add my name in the middle of his and I decided to add his last name. I’ve chosen to keep both the family names instead of choosing one over the other. And trust me; this was not an impromptu thought. People didn’t know, but I was engaged for a year and we have thought this through. Why should I explain my choices? Feminism strictly means equal opportunity and the right to make a choice. I understand there are barriers to be broken. The day you stop taking your father’s name is when things will begin to change. But that’s a long way to go.

Do you think films like these will open conversations for men and women on these subjects?
It’s important for women to own up to what they like and don’t like without the fear of being judged. Look, a lot happens around us because of our general conditioning. We ask a woman if she’s slowing down after marriage or having babies. Do we ask a man that? Look at Kareena! We come from different schools of filmmaking, but I respect the fact that she started out in the early 2000s and has done an array of work, including films like Chameli (2003) and Ki & Ka (2016). She’s worked like crazy even after marriage and having a baby. We didn’t ask Shahid Kapoor if his life slowed down because of marriage or babies. I went to Cannes immediately after my wedding, which was just an extension of my state of mind.