Will keep trying different things, know people will come back to Poo and Geet types of roles: Kareena

PTI, Sep 5, 2023, 5:22 PM IST

Credit: Flavor89, via Wikimedia Commons

Actor Kareena Kapoor Khan on Tuesday said she will continue to bring something new with every character, despite being remembered for her popular roles like Poo from “Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham” and Geet from ”Jab We Met”.

The two characters from the blockbuster movies — released in 2001 and 2007 — form a pivotal part of her filmography and the actor said she still finds it difficult to step outside the box.

”As an actor, you want to try and do something different every time. For me, it is difficult because I’ve been known for playing Poo and Geet… This thing has been fixed in people’s minds. So, that has been a conscious effort that now I want to do different things…

”They don’t think of the films that I’ve done in the past such as ‘Dev’, ‘Chameli’, and others. But I’m going to keep trying to do different things. I know that they will keep coming back to Poo and Geet,” Kareena told reporters here at the trailer launch of “Jaane Jaan”.

Citing the example of Vishal Bhardwaj’s 2006 critically-acclaimed film, “Omkara”, the 42-year-old actor said she has played intense roles in the past.

”I’ve done quite a few intense roles but you all remember only Poo and Geet. I feel very angry about it. Like, ‘Omkara’ was also intense,” she recalled about starring in Bhardwaj’s acclaimed adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy ”Othello”.

Kareena is set to make her OTT debut with ”Jaane Jaan”, filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh’s Hindi language adaptation of popular Japanese novel ”Devotion of Suspect X”.

The actor said one of the reasons she boarded the Netflix film was that she didn’t want to be left behind in exploring the streaming space. ”I am more nervous than I was 20 years ago for the first time. Watching the promo so closely on TV screens, people would be watching me so closely on their phones. We have all worked very hard. Every actor says that but Sujoy has made a fantastic film. We have been trying to work together for over a decade,” she said.

Kareena said she was first approached with the project when she was in Dharamshala with husband Saif Ali Khan, who was at the time shooting for his movie ”Bhoot Police”.

”We were shooting in Dharamshala and I was pregnant with Jeh. Everything just came together. He (producer Jay Shewekramani) said Sujoy is very excited and he has been with the script for so long.

”I said ‘Why don’t we do it for Netflix?’ Everyone is doing so much work there and I don’t want to be left behind,” she added.

”Jaane Jaan” also stars Jaideep Ahlawat and Vijay Varma, whom Kareena described as ”natural actors”. ”I wanted to work with really amazing actors, someone I can add freshness with and learn from… I can’t thank them enough. Like sometime in the middle of the shot, I would look at them and forget my lines. I have never done it, they are so natural. It was meant to be,” she said.

”Jaane Jaan” will premiere on Netflix on Kareena’s birthday (September 21). The movie is produced by 12th Street Entertainment, Northern Lights Films in association with Kross Pictures and Balaji Motion Pictures.