"I am tragedy queen"

Her car has more baggage in it than a mini department store.

But that’s home on the go for Katrina Kaif, who occupies the topmost echelon in Bollywood today. She’s just back from Goa where she was up all night shooting. “The best part of my day is when I’m alone in the car and I switch on my iPod and just chill out,” she reveals.

“I don’t take any calls. If I really like a song, I’ll hear that and only that for a week. Then the next week, what I’ll listen to will be light years away. The music of Yuvvraaj is like that. When Subhashji came into my van and gave me the album, I heard a song and my instant reaction was to hear it again. Rahmansaab has that quality in his music; it has many layers to it.”

She trained to mock-play the cello for Yuvvraaj. It would have taken her two years to master the real thing, Katrina accepts, but she had to maintain some sort of pretence while going through the motions on screen. When she did try to actually play the cello, the resultant noise, she says, was akin to stepping on a cat’s tail!

She grew up on Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire movies and loved that sense of grandeur and the song sequences with their coordinated movements. “They were very theatrical. And that’s why I wanted to be a part of Subhashji’s film, with its grand, sweeping visuals...” she trails off. “Subhashji doesn’t give you a bound script. He directs you through every scene and every shot. You have to trust him; it’s his vision and his baby and I just follow his guidance.”

From reel to real, Cancerians are supposed to be able to bring passion and drive to whatever they do... “That’s true. We’re also secretive, loyal and sensitive,” she adds, “... and a bit of drama queens... private drama queens. No, drama isn’t the word. Actually, it’s tragedy queens! Everything is a great big tragedy. You get your heart broken and it’s like the end of the world,” she says, rolling her eyes. “I think we take everything personally. We hate taking small decisions, we crave security, and

I don’t think we can ever NOT have an anchor in life.” And what of the Katrina with the tough shell? “That’s the side of me when I’m in a place where I’m not entirely comfortable, so that difficult exterior does go up. But when I’m comfortable, I’m having fun 90 per cent of the time. If I’m enjoying myself on the set and feeling good, I never see my van, unless it’s freezing cold or boiling hot.”

Speaking about showbiz, she admits, “Actors get almost schizophrenic after a while. There is the person they are, their nature and then there is the person they have adapted themselves to be in the limelight. When I’m away from the sets, I don’t wear makeup, I’m not bothered about my hair or my clothes. When I’m away from the films, it’s my downtime.”

And, coming back to Yuvvraaj... and Salman Khan, the yuvraj on screen and in her life. “My favourite scenes are definitely the ones between Salman and me. We are a romantic couple in the film and I was nervous about how that would come up. We have done two films together that were successful, like Partner and Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya, and I didn’t want anything to look forced. But the movements have been spontaneous, they have a certain amount of freshness to them, and that comes across. It was natural. I hope the audience agrees with me!” she says.