I totally agree with you—I think if you’re an Indian
woman you should know how to drape a sari. It’s a racket
out there with people who only want to shame others in the
name of propagating their culture and identity. But I know
people who find it uncool to admit that they speak and
understand Hindi or that they like Indian food or [that they
are] brown. You can be a citizen of the world without
compromising on your individuality.
SM: You’re a poster child of Indian fashion. You wear
a Kanchivaram sari with gajra in your hair, the next day
you’re wearing a short dress, and another time you’re
wearing something with no lingerie. And it is all done
equally effortlessly.
KR: I happen to be in this exciting field so I get exposed to
great 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 characters
and 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 from
so many different lives and times and centuries, somehow one becomes
very light. I can choose to be anyone and that brings about that fluidity
in 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 your
confidence that makes you attractive. I tell a lot of women who are large
to 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 they
wear or how they look or their hair or their skin are always limited to
that one dimension. We can’t be so attached to ourselves. There are
people who have transcended to another dimension. Look at people
like Meryl Streep or Daniel Day-Lewis—they are among the greatest
actors in the world.
SM: A lot of stylists always say one thing about you—she has a mind
of her own. Whatever we give her, ultimately she decides what she
wants 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 own
stories, 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 for
Anushka’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 a
story, 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, where
would you like to go? ➤“I get to play a lot of
characters and that
keeps me fluid in
terms of how I feel
as a woman. I feel
formless, ageless,
and structureless.”
—Kangana
Ranaut
Dress, Sabyasachi.