Vaani Kapoor: People said you dance really well, I had to remind them I can act, too

Vaani Kapoor is basking in the appreciation for her performance in her latest big-screen outing Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui (2021). And she is happy to have reached a stage where her acting chops are recognised, as until now she was only slotted into the ‘rom-com actor’ and ‘good dancer’ categories.

“Everywhere, people would say, ‘You dance really well’, and I would be like, ‘I also act’. Maybe I don’t get that meaty parts enough to showcase [my acting skills]. I am not trying to be immodest here and say ‘I know how to act’ and of course it’s also the director (Abhishek Kapoor) who has presented me in a certain way in this film, and it worked,” she says.

The actor feels that there is also a change in how we look at female actors, but it is not enough just yet.

“With the emergence of women-driven films, women get good parts to play. But it’s a long way to go where audiences need to give such films a chance, and give it enough so that the box-office numbers doesn’t look shabby, for the makes to have the courage to cast and make more films which are driven by women, or give them meatier parts,” elaborates Kapoor, who has Shamshera lined up for a release this year.

While the situation is uncertain yet again due to the surge in Covid-19 cases, she is happy that both her films in 2021 — BellBottom and Chandigarh Kare Aaqhiqui — opened in theatres, and not OTT. Supporting theatrical releases, she notes, “I am happy that it released in theatres, not OTT because I feel it reaches a larger audience. A lot of people are still not on OTT. Of course, it reaches the outskirts of cities, but majority of people there are not on OTT. Theatres do that much.”

The 33-year-old also doesn’t miss mentioning how the experience is very different. “It (watching a movie in theatres) is a community experience. My father is an ailing patient and doesn’t step out because of his ailments and Covid. But he went to a theatre in Delhi for my film, I had kept a screening. He said ‘I loved the whole experience’. He also loved the film, but he liked the experience of watching it friends and family. It has a bigger reach,” Kapoor concludes.