‘TAIMUR IS TOO SMALL TO REALISE HE’S BEING CLICKED’
Actor Kareena Kapoor Khan talks about one of the few people in the country who can upstage her
Basking in the success of her latest film, Veere Di Wedding, actor Kareena Kapoor Khan can, at the moment, have only person steal the limelight from her — that’s her own son, little Taimur, the Internet-breaker.
While promoting the film, Kareena faced as many questions about Taimur as about the plot and her co-stars. Though she did say in a recent interview that she was getting “bored” of fielding the Taimur questions, she’s happy to chat with us about the country’s most famous infant (as he has been since his birth in December 2016), how he’s growing up, why she has never tried to block the media glare, and her hopes for a “normal upbringing”.
You recently said that you don’t want Taimur’s life to be documented, but looks like he’s already used to the camera.
(Laughs) I feel it’s about getting used to his name being called out [by the paparazzi] and not particularly the cameras around. I don’t think he can make out that he’s being clicked. He’s still too small for that [right now]. People love to see his pictures on social media. No harm, surely, if there’s more of him out there? Honestly, I’ve never held back anything. He’s practically all over the place. But he’s just 17 months old, so, let him grow up and have his life. I want him to have a normal upbringing; I totally understand that it’s tough to have it in today’s time but it is okay. I’m letting him be.
You started working soon after Taimur was born. Was there ever guilt that you weren’t able to give him as much time as any new mother would?
My time with my son — because it’s not on social media or no one knows about it — does not need to be [made public]. Just because I don’t post a picture with him or I don’t carry him at airports doesn’t mean I don’t spend time with my son. I believe in quality over quantity... and what my time and my bond is with my son, I don’t need to announce to the world. Are we saying that mothers who work don’t spend time with their children? It’s not like that. You aren’t on social media yet...
I think anyway, whatever I say makes it to social media, so [my absence] doesn’t matter. Whether people love it, like it or troll it, everything related to me is all out there.
Do you often search what’s being posted about you online?
Not at all! It’d be sad if my life were just about Googling myself; thankfully, it’s not. Have work priorities changed because you want to spend more time with Taimur?
Of course, they have! I have a son, a family and responsibility on my shoulders, so I’ll choose to do one film at a time because I need time for them. And since it’s just one, I’d want to do something good and interesting and it’ll be the one I choose rather than doing something for a friend or anything.