BAZAAR

I totally agree with you—I think if you’re an Indianwoman you should know how to drape a sari. It’s a racketout there with people who only want to shame others in thename of propagating their culture and identity. But I knowpeople who find it uncool to admit that they speak andunderstand Hindi or that they like Indian food or [that theyare] brown. You can be a citizen of the world withoutcompromising on your individuality.SM: You’re a poster child of Indian fashion. You weara Kanchivaram sari with gajra in your hair, the next dayyou’re wearing a short dress, and another time you’rewearing something with no lingerie. And it is all doneequally effortlessly.KR: I happen to be in this exciting field so I get exposed togreat artists. If I wasn’t in this business maybe I would have a set pattern.My personality might have been rigid. But I get to play a lot charactersand that keeps me fluid in terms of how I feel as a woman. I feel formless,ageless, and structureless.I think by playing so many contradictory characters who come fromso many different lives and times and centuries, somehow one becomesvery light. I can choose to be anyone and that brings about that fluidityin my fashion sense also. I have people who help me.SM: Once you commit to something, your body doesn’t exist for you.It’s confidence. I often say that it’s not the way you look but yourconfidence that makes you attractive. I tell a lot of women who are largeto wear a bodycon dress, to learn to wear fitted garments and not hide.KR: I think people who identify too much with things like what theywear or how they look or their hair or their skin are always limited tothat one dimension. We can’t be so attached to ourselves. There arepeople who have transcended to another dimension. Look at peoplelike Meryl Streep or Daniel Day-Lewis—they are among the greatestactors in the world.SM: A lot of stylists always say one thing about you—she has a mindof her own. Whatever we give her, ultimately she decides what shewants to wear. I think that’s a huge compliment. How do you shop?KR: I always make time to shop and I cannot do online shopping.Clothes for me are all characters, or like thoughts. They are their ownstories, so I’ve to have an interaction with the dress or even a T-shirt.What I wore for Sonam’s wedding is my own sari. What I wore forAnushka’s wedding was a gift from you. That becomes its story.Everyone said, “Oh, why did she repeat that sari?” But, for me, it’s astory, it’s a friend’s gift.SM: Are you more of a jewellery person or a handbag person?KR: Both, but I think I am more inclined towards jewellery.SM: If you had the freedom to travel anywhere in the world, wherewould you like to go? ➤“I get to play a lot ofcharacters and thatkeeps me fluid interms of how I feelas a woman. I feelformless, ageless,and structureless.”—KanganaRanautDress, Sabyasachi.