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Photo : Bijoy Ghosh

READY AND STEADY Katrina Kaif says she has come to stay in Bollywood

At 23, Katrina Kaif is young but not immature. Edging towards caution she avoids the sensational but escapes the boring too.

Katrina juiced up the Capital recently, with the launch of Aamsutra, “the art of experiencing the all-new Slice”. She is PepsiCo Slice’s first brand ambassador.

While Katrina started as a model, she feels that endorsing a product as an actor is different. She explains, “When you come in as an actor, you lend more than a face to a brand. You lend a personality.”

Katrina’s recent movie Race is proving to be the first hit of the year. When people ask, “What next?”, she replies, “Let me rest for a while. I need a break for a bit!”

But there’s no break. She has already been signed up for a romantic movie to be directed by Raj Kumar Santoshi with Ranbir Kapoor.

She is excited as it is with a young team. The big banners of Yash Raj and Subhash Ghai are also knocking at her door. Singh is Kinng with Akshay Kumar to be released in August is a fun movie. She says it was like shooting with friends.

A success in comedies and light-hearted roles, Katrina says she chooses films that the audiences want, adding, “You should be secondary. The audiences should be first.” She selects her movies as an audience member. Only six movies old, she says, “Would I want to watch this movie I ask myself.”

With Studio 18, reportedly, paying the young star three crore rupees per film, Katrina is one of Bollywood’s highest paid actresses with Kareena Kapoor. But she says that the monetary gap with male actors can never be bridged.

While Bollywood might have made her the star, Katrina started with Telugu and Malayalam movies.

Surprisingly, she says, “My two Telugu movie (Malliswari and Allari Pidugu) experiences were my best. When I would leave those films, I would nearly cry!” Despite half a dozen Hindi films to her credit , Katrina is still diffident about Hindi. She wittily snubs any request to speak in Hindi, believing that the study of it is endless. “

Just when you have got used to Hindi, you have to start learning all the Urdu words,” she laments. While she found Telugu easy Malayalam was her biggest challenge. She recounts that while she learnt all her Malayalam lines (for Balram vs. Taradas) with great confidence. The problem was that she could never say them as fast as the language demanded.

Katrina has a carefully crafted look for each appearance. Loving styling and clothes she takes a personal interest in each look. She would one day also like to design a sleep wear and party wear collection.

Having grown up in the UK and Hong Kong, Katrina is now a known face in India.

“I have come to expect the unexpected,” she says with a laugh.

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