New Delhi: She started her career with out-and-out comedies before making a gradual shift to big budget action films, but actress Katrina Kaif says she does not bound herself to any specific genre.
Kaif, known to star in hit comedy films like “Partner”, “Singh is King” and “Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani” shifted to action movies, including “Ek Tha Tiger”, “Dhoom 3″ and her last film “Bang Bang” later in her career. “I don’t have any pressure. I think people make mistake when they start feeling pressurised to follow a genre. May be they feel ‘I have to do a comedy film because it’s going to make money at the box office’ or ‘I have to do a serious film as now I need to get a lot of critical acclaim’. “Both of those being the driving factors will compel you to make the wrong decision,” Kaif said.
The 32-year-old actress will be next seen in Saif Ali Khan-starrer action-thriller “Phantom”, directed by Kabir Khan of “Bajrangi Bhaijaan” fame. For Kaif, doing different kinds of genres is a sign of an actor’s evolution, one which they should feel free to do. “Every actor has a natural evolution. You start out as an actor, you are still learning, trying to find your feet so you do the films which excite you and present you at the time. As you prove yourself, directors get more confident and then you get drawn to slightly off-beat roles. “A movie like ‘Welcome’ falls in the genre where you need to not be taking the situation seriously while ‘Phantom’ is a genre where you need to be taking it seriously. Every actor should have the freedom to feel free to be in whichever genre they want to be in.”
Kaif has mostly started opposite established stars like Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan. But the actress says she has always tried to strike a balance between working with stars and newcomers. “Films of all the huge stars like Shah Rukh, Salman, Aamir or Akshay dominate attention. I did ‘Namastey London’ and followed it up with ‘New York’ where Neil (Nitin Mukesh) was a new comer. It had John (Abraham) who hadn’t established himself with a lot of work then. We were all in the new boat. “I did ‘Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani’ at a time when it was Ranbir’s second film. He was a complete newcomer. If I had ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ I also had ‘Mere Brother Ki Dulhan’ where Imran (Khan), at that point of time, had relatively done lesser films. It is just that the star-mounted films tend to remain at the forefront of our memory.”
While her contemporaries are taking on off-beat films, the actress, who had shed her glamorous avatar for Prakash Jha’s 2010 hit “Rajneeti”, says she is open to do different roles provided she is content with the film. “As long as the film and the story is credible and it interests me, I have no reservation about the kind of films I am part of, in terms of genres or the story. But it has to interest me. I need to be drawn towards it.” PTI
