Being Sonam

Sorting thick curls that frame her face — a marked departure from her usual straight locks — Sonam Kapoor Ahuja shrugs off the negative reaction that the first photographs from her film The Zoya Factor recently evoked. But her fans were clearly puzzled by her frizzy curls and thick eyebrows as well as the oversized and mannish suit she had donned in the photos. She had captioned one of her Insta-stories where she was sitting in a salon with curlers in her hair, “The things I do for my job! I’m taking the plunge into the curly!”

She has just begun shooting for the film, based on Anuja Chauhan’s novel of the same name. Directed by Abhishek Sharma of Tere Bin Laden fame, the film is scheduled for release on April 5. It stars her alongside popular South Indian actor Dulqer Salmaan, who recently made his Bollywood debut with Karwaan . Kapoor Ahuja is candid over a freewheeling chat with Luxe in Mumbai about her new look, her fashion label — and other matters. When asked how she responded to online trolls, she replied, “I think polarising views are the trend in the country right now. If I cared about what people said about me, I wouldn’t be where I am.”

Kapoor Ahuja adds that she really likes the character she plays in the film. “Like all young girls, she’s also struggling with herself. I relate to it.” Mili, a role that she played in the film Khoobsurat who, already knows herself, but her character in The Zoya Factor begins to understand who she is only after meeting Nikhil (played by Salmaan), she points out. “I worked very closely with the director and creative producer to develop the character, but I also worked on it alone,” she tells Luxe .

Kapoor Ahuja is making a name for herself as an entrepreneur — especially for her retail fashion and accessories label Rheson, which she has started with her sister Rhea, a film producer. Rheson won PETA’s Compassionate Business Award in 2017 for its bags made exclusively of faux leather. Kapoor Ahuja herself was crowned PETA’s Hottest Vegetarian Celebrity in 2016.

Rheson is known for its accessible yet stylish dailywear for women, and is available in retail outlets such as Shoppers Stop and Amazon. “One should wear whatever makes one happy; age, weight, body types are no bars!” Kapoor Ahuja had told the wire service IANS in an interview.

This staying-true-to-self ethos embodied by Ahuja had made headlines with her 2016 Buzzfeed essay titled “I Didn’t Wake Up Like This”. Busting the myths around beauty in Bollywood, she examined her own struggles with her body and self-image as a mainstream actor.

“It’s true — I didn’t wake up like this,” she says, discussing the essay. “I have people working on me, and I don’t want young girls to think that this is something they should aspire to be and try to kill themselves over it, figuratively and literally.” Explaining the inhuman pressure there is on female actors to look flawless, she points out that social media exacerbates the problem. Young girls are coerced into looking their best, which is made possible by myriad image filters available on social media platforms. “But that’s not real life,” Ahuja exclaims.

“With all this pressure on young people to look perfect, I just want them to know that it’s ok — it’s ok to say the wrong thing, wear the wrong outfit, to put on weight or lose it. It’s ok!” Kapoor Ahuja concludes with a smile.