Janhvi Kapoor, whose debut film Dhadak releases next week, told news agency IANS that looking at a montage from the film, for a split second, she thought it was her late mother Sridevi and not her onscreen. "I am my mumma's daughter, so I look like her; but I know I am different. There was that one montage shot where I am drinking milk in a scene. For a fraction of second, I thought that was mumma... I was like 'Oh God, wasn't it her? Actually, in that shot, I saw my side profile." Janhvi Kapoor explained that it was because of a moment which happened in the Kapoor household regularly. "I have one such image of mumma where she used to have juice in the early morning. So the moment I woke up and looked out for her around me, I would see her drinking juice from a side. So yes, that was one moment."
Janhvi Kapoor is the elder of Sridevi and Boney Kapoor's two daughters and she was a bona fide celebrity even before her debut film was announced. The paparazzi followed her movements closely and the Internet too was dedicated in chronicling her life on social media groups.
But Janhvi Kapoor says she wants to deserve this. "I am trying to preserve a sense of my identity in all that because it is very easy to lose my head in this madness. I am getting so much attention, people are talking about me, my pictures are out there, I am talking so much about myself... I am reading about myself every day. It is easy for me to think that I am the most important person in the world," she said. "But then I am not letting that happen. I know it is happening all for the film and if I want people to talk about me, I have to deliver hit films. Otherwise, that will be wrong. I am trying hard to earn the right to grab the spotlight, I am trying to be a deserving person to talk about," she added.
Speaking to IANS, Janhvi Kapoor also listed her role models and the famous actress she wants to shadow onscreen. "I have watched Madhubalaji in films like Mughal-e-Azam, Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi and Mr & Mrs 55. I have seen the beautiful Waheeda ji in Guide, Pyaasa, Meena Kumari ji in Pakeezah, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam. Watching them, I get fascinated and mesmerised. I so wish to (re)create the magic of these legends on-screen."
"Every time I watch these films, I get motivated and tell myself, 'Mujhe yeh karna hai (I want to do this)'... This magic, this performance," she told IANS.
Dhadak is directed by Shashank Khaitan and produced by Karan Johar and it also stars Ishaan Khatter and Ashutosh Rana. Dhadak opens in theatres on July 20.
(With inputs from IANS)
