RENDEZVOUS WITH SOHA ALI KHAN

Soha Ali Khan, the daughter of an Indian royal family, the motivational speaker, the confident, independent woman who wears life in style, gives alluring performances in cinema, talk about her perception of beauty, her life after marriage, her love for acting, her outlook on judging the India Australia beauty pageant 2015 and a lot more in an exclusive interview with Divya Dhingra from Indus age. Excerpts:
Today you stand as a beautifully ‘married lady’. How has life changed after marriage?

I am quite pleased to say that it hasn’t changed very much because Kunal and I have known each other for almost eight years now. There were no secrets, we have seen the worst of each other before we decided to take the proverbial plunge and we also lived together for a couple of years before we got married, so there were no surprises, in fact the promise that we made to each other was that both of us wouldn’t change as persons, and we’ve kept the bargain so far. But it has been just four, five months since our marriage so it’s still very new.

You are a daughter of an Indian royal family or Nawabs, do you feel any kind of pressure to carry forward the lineage?

I really think that, that whole world (of nawabs) is more or less disappearing in India now. I appreciate the cultural traditions that we have in our family and we try and uphold them as much as possible but the whole era of the nawabs, being a prince or princess, a king or a queen, no longer really holds in modern India. And certainly the lifestyle that I have back in Mumbai doesn’t reflect much of that. I may have inherited a title, some clothes or jewelry but beyond that, I feel sort of very modern 21st century working woman who is more focused on her career and tend to look more towards the future than to the past.

Your mother is a beauty icon herself and you’ve certainly taken after her. If you had to describe beauty, how would you?

As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder so what I find beautiful maybe different towards someone else. For me beauty is something that has a visual component that you might find attractive, whether it’s a painting or a person, or say a piece of art. But beyond that beauty is something that’s beyond what goes in the surface, what is simply just beautiful to look at becomes old quite quickly and you can get bored with it. But something that has a personality or is engaging in a different way, that thing lasts more and makes more of an impact, so beauty must come from within and not just beyond the surface.

You were a special judge for Miss, Mrs. and Mr. India Australia Pageant 2015, what were the aspects that you as a judge looked for while evaluating the contestants?

Because it was a beauty pageant so, the one that made an impact visually was important, as first impressions do matter, what I intend to say by that is, one doesn’t conventionally have to be aesthetically beautiful or handsome. You have to have screen presence which is difficult to quantify but you know it when you have it. I was looking for somebody who would make an impact on how they walked or talked and presented them, I was looking for a sense of confidence, a sense of inner beauty, personality and also humor. I think it’s always great if you can make someone laugh and lighten the mood.

We see Soha as an actor and we also see her as a motivational speaker at educational institutes (like Harvard). If she’s a judge at one point, she’s an anchor at the other. What do you have to say about the diverse sides that you have?

I enjoy all the various aspects of working in this line, ofcourse the main love as an actor is doing films but there’s so much that’s part and parcel of this job when you’re an actor in India people do look at you as a role model and they ask you to be a motivational speaker. People want to understand your story, your struggle, your successes and how you cope with them. And movie actors are very powerful in India and around the world so some of that can be challenging while some can be very enjoyable. What I enjoy the most is perhaps, the motivational speaking, because I do enjoy speaking, especially to students and young people, I think if you share your stories then perhaps you don’t feel so alone. A lot of people have a misconception about the glamour industry, especially about female actors, on how they throw tantrums, so I do like to set them straight as far as possible.

You’ve acted in Hindi, Bengali and English cinema respectively. Out of the three which type you like working in the most?

I have enjoyed working in all. It’s really more about the character you’re playing, the director, the people that you’re working with on the film. Of course working with Rituperno Ghosh in Antarmahal, a Bengali film which I did was a very valuable experience, because he was a fantastic director. Working in Hindi cinema on films like Rang De Basanti or Sahe biwi or gangster, phenomenal directors, wonderful scripts, really engaging characters like Khoya khoya Chaand, I really felt sad when the film ended because I wasn’t ready to let go of the character. And then again, English cinema is wonderful as I am very comfortable in English. It was lovely to shoot in England, I did a film called ‘Life goes on’ with my mother. I have been part of Canadian films working with Deepa Mehta like Midnight’s children so for me it’s not about the language but the people am working with and the character that I am playing.

You will be seen in Ghayal Once Again which is a sequel of 1990 hit Indian film Ghayal, starring Sunny Deol, and there will be high expectations from it. What do you have to say about that?

I would say that it has been a huge success, an all time grosser; a lot of people have loved. I think it’s a film that lends itself to have a sequel in terms of the plot and they’ve done true justice to it. It’s a true sequel with a lot of characters being repeated like the original Ghayal, it is phenomenally action-packed. Sunny Deol has put his heart and soul into this film and he’s directed it as well. I hope it does well.

You’re an icon of fashion for us. A few fashion mantras that you would like to give to our readers.

I don’t see myself as a Fashionista at all I prefer to be in style, for me wearing something classic, something that suits me is more important than the trend of the moment. Having said that, as an actor you’ve to constantly try out different things and work on different looks. But I think for women, I would suggest to find out what your body type is. If you dress according to certain rules then you can achieve that look of perfection, nobody is perfect, nobody has that perfect hourglass figure, some people might have but you can still achieve an illusion of perfection if you style well.