When producer Aarti Shetty called Sonam Kapoor to ask if she would consider playing the lead in the screen adaptation of Anuja Chauhan’s debut novel The Zoya Factor , Kapoor responded with a prompt “I don’t think anybody but me should be playing this role”.
Bookish bonds
The actor has had a long-standing relationship with the author. “I have known [Anuja] for the past seven-eight years. I own [the rights to her] book Battle for Bittora . I launched Those Pricey Thakur Girls in Delhi,” she says. While a love for Chauhan’s writing has led her to wholeheartedly support the author’s works, she explains that it is her female characters that she finds especially attractive. “They are fun, relatable, ordinary. They have a very typical modern Indian girl vibe to them — I really like that,” she admits, noting that the regular girl with a messy work and love life is hardly ever represented on screen, being pushed out more often by the ubiquitous small-town girl or the hyper Yash Raj or Dharma city girl. Moreover, having known the author personally, she points out, “When you meet Anuja, you’ll understand that all her characters are inspired by her. She’s spunky and has this self-deprecating way of looking at herself.”
In 2010, Kapoor worked on another screen adaptation of a literary work when she played the eponymous heroine in Aisha , a film that was based on Jane Austen’s Emma . But adapting Chauhan’s novel for the screen involved new methods. Kapoor says that in The Zoya Factor, rather than conveying her thoughts through voice-overs which was an approach used extensively in Aisha , it was decided that they would use piece to camera moments, episodes where her character breaks the fourth wall and speaks to the camera directly.
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Kapoor describes The Zoya Factor as quirky and easy-going, a film that concerns itself with how superstitious cricketers are and how affected by cricket India is. “When something is result-based, you need to repeat it,” she says alluding to the central theme of the film. It is the kind of film that she has not done in a while. “The last one that I did was Khoobsurat ,” she says.
While expressing that she can only work with people she enjoys being around, Kapoor shares that she felt the need to make a light and entertaining film because of the present atmosphere in the world. “I gravitated towards it because I wanted something that was simple. This is the kind of commercial film I’d do where you can forget about the stressful situations in life,” she elaborates. She believes that most young people in India now need a temporary break from everything going on around them and the film will offer that respite. It is a film that, “I would like to go to with my girlfriends and eat popcorn. And where I will not have to think about global warming and divisive politics for two hours of the day,” she states.
But preparing for the film brought its share of challenges. The actor recalls an incident where she ended up getting her hair burnt when she went to get it permed for the role.
Weighty issues
She explains that one is meant to apply a protector on the hair before putting the perm solution, a step that was neglected by the hairstylist. Although some of it has grown back since the incident, she points to the bit that still carries the damage. “My hair was my pride,” she says sadly.
The actor also gained 10 kilos for the role to match the character’s description in the book and shares that although she generally has a hard time keeping the weight on when stressed or working, it has been difficult losing it this time.
Kapoor hopes to work in the future with directors like Shimit Amin and Imtiaz Ali while also wishing to return to filmmakers she has already collaborated with. “I really hope to do a horror film one day,” she says between laughing while talking about her desire to scream and get scared on screen as she has not done that yet.
