Sonam Kapoor found herself in the middle of an online controversy this month, after her brief appearance in the video for Coldplay's new single, Hymn for the Weekend, which was criticised by some for an over-reliance on Indian stereotypes.
During a visit to Dubai last week, however, she was on more solid ground as she focused on promoting her new movie Neerja, which will be in cinemas from Thursday, February 18.
She takes the title role in this true-life drama inspired by the hijacking of Pan Am flight 73 at Karachi airport in September 1986.
Neerja Bhanot was a flight attendant for the airline, who heroically concealed the identities of Americans from the hijackers, before saving the lives of many passengers, including three children whom she shielded from a hail of bullets as they escaped, losing her own life in the process.
In a rare show of international unity, Bhanot was posthumously awarded the highest civilian bravery awards of three countries — India, Pakistan and the United States.
Kapoor hopes the movie will remind people of Bhanot and her selfless heroism.
“I wasn’t really aware of the story,” she says. “I don’t think that many people were aware of her.
“There was something in my subconscious about who she was — but it was 30 years ago and she was just an ordinary girl. She wasn’t supremely popular or well-known after all that time.
“I guess in the days before social media, and the huge press we have now — back then we just had one TV channel in India — if you were around at the time, you’d remember her.
“People were naming their children after her back then. But over the years, there’s just so many stories and so much information.
“If something happened four days ago in my life, everyone forgets in five days — and I’m pretty popular, I think.”
Kapoor says she felt a an obligation to Bhanot when she was preparing for the role.
“Witness accounts were all different, that’s their nature, right?” she says. “So I had to go to the internet and get facts. That was all there — but how do you understand the soul of the person? I had to speak to her friends and her family and try to create something from that.
“You feel a responsibility, because Neerja was really loved by her family and friends, even if not many people know about her now.
“So the responsibility is to make sure the memory they have in their heads is something that I don’t let down by doing this — so my big responsibility is to her friends and family.
“America, India and Pakistan all gave her a bravery award — how often do those three agree on anything? So, I thought, if they can agree she was brave, I have to get this right.”
This desire to honour Bhanot and to do justice to her story extended to the rest of the cast and crew.
“Of course we all wanted to get the story right,” says Kapoor.
“We had to change a couple of names, but we really tried to get to the root of the story. Even down to little things like learning about the songs she liked and getting the licence to use them in the film.
“Our director [Ram Madvhani] is maybe a bit crazy, he likes to get it all correct — so that’s what we tried to do.”
The film represents something of a departure from the romantic comedies Kapoor has appeared in previously — though she says she is comfortable taking on a variety of roles.
“I like both, and I want to do both,” she says. “When I watched this film, I forgot that it was me playing the role. I don’t know what that says about the film but I was so engrossed, I just felt like I was watching a beautifully made story, like a documentary that was well made and horrifying at the same time. I totally forgot it was even me.”
• Neerja will be in UAE cinemas from February 18, Thursday
cnewbould@thenational.ae
