HER MOTHER’S DAUGHTER

The actress lists her debuts

First media interview: “It was a press conference for the launch of a People magazine cover that mom [Sridevi], Khushi and I had done.”

First photoshoot: “For Filmfare the whole family shot at our Chennai home. It was a lot of fun!”

First autograph: “Before we started shooting for Dhadak, we’d gone to Udaipur for a recce and someone asked me for an autograph.”

First awkward media moment: “The media has been supportive but there have been times when they have asked me extremely personal questions at a really sensitive time.”

First time watching my movie with the audience: “This is yet to happen. I watched Dhadak only once, at the premiere of the movie.”

struggle, sometimes you need something extra. You can meet people, audition, work on yourself, but after a point I felt I needed something more, so I took a mannat.”

Though she knows a mannat is not a shortcut to success or a substitute for hard work, in taking mannats Janhvi is following in her mother’s footsteps. “Mom was very religious and even superstitious about certain things. She would do a lot of pujas and mannats for us and for papa’s films. I grew up seeing all that,” she says.

So, when Janhvi only enters a room with her right foot and avoids doing anything auspicious during ‘rahu kalam,’ these are just habits she has acquired over time. “It is like you see your mom wash her face before going to bed every night, and you start emulating her and then it becomes part of your own before-sleep ritual,” she explains.

While Janhvi always attended family pujas all her life, it was because attendance was compulsory, not because she was religious. Her connection to religion grew only after her mother’s death. “After last year, I very organically started to connect with this side of mom’s personality and it gave me a lot of comfort,” she says. “It makes me feel more connected with her when I pray.”

(PS: Now that she’s got the role she wanted, Janhvi’s back to non-veg food!)

Janhvi Kapoor