Mumbai: Kalki Koechlin’s personal life has always grabbed headlines. Even as the actress is busy promoting her upcoming film, Margarita With A Straw, reports about her divorce being finalised with her husband, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, is doing the rounds.
Unperturbed by the whispers about her divorce, the actress, along with the director of Margarita With A Straw, Shonali Bose, spoke to Firstpost about the film.
Koechlin plays the role of Laila, a woman who suffers from cerebral palsy in Margarita With A Straw. When asked if Laila’s journey of finding love changed her perception of love, the actress replied that for her, “it was a very honest portrayal of teenage life and love.”
“Laila’s character is naughty. She is greedy for love. Like any teenager who is excited about her first kiss, about meeting a guy,” said Koechlin.
“You know, those awkward mistakes you make. You just want to try it, but don’t want to follow it through with that person. She (Laila) makes all those mistakes or experiences. She goes through them.”
Drawing an analogy between her own teen years and those of Laila’s, Koechlin said cheerfully described her young self as “pretty irresponsible”.
“It was all about ‘Oh my god! I am going to marry this guy’,” she said, “and then the next day it was like, ‘I can’t stand this guy, I am so embarrassed.’ You know, we have these very irresponsible attractions and retractions and then there is also this feeling of just wanting to be cool, accepted.”
Thinking back to those years, Koechlin said, “I remember, I had braces as a teenager for like ever and I just wanted a guy. I just wanted a guy to like me even with my braces. But as soon as I got him, I was not interested in him. You know, all these things we face as teenagers, Laila is going through the same things.”
While as a teenager, Koechlin may have been fickle about love, today with media watching her every step, she cannot afford to be the same. In a recent interview, the actress confessed that although previously she was open about her relationship, now-a-days she doesn’t wear her heart on her sleeve. She wants to keep her personal life private.
Although Bollywood actresses often shy away from marrying early, Koechlin married Kashyap right after her first film, Dev D. Many B-town heroines may consider marriage as a retirement plan, but Koechlin’s career never faltered.
Although her first few films were produced by Kashyap, (like The Girl In Yellow Boots, which she co-wrote and directed), Koechlin quickly proved her mettle by delivering power packed performance in Dibakar Banerjee’s Shanghai and made the box office rock with Ayan Mukherji’s Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.
In 2013, Koechlin and Kashyap announced their separation in a joint statement. There were rumours that actress Huma Qureshi was responsible for their separation, but Koechlin has always maintained that the issues between her and Kashyap were theirs alone and went out of her way to tell the press to leave Qureshi alone.
Talking about her relationship with Kashyap, Koechlin told media recently, ” Last year…I wasn’t sure where my relationship with Anurag was going.”
“Now, we are pretty clear that we are not going to be together.” she added.
