When Katrina Kaif spoke about lurking paparazzi, not being able to roam freely: ‘You are conscious of being recorded…’

Katrina Kaif, who was captured reacting angrily last year as paparazzi followed her during her workout in Mumbai, also spoke about how there was no longer any ‘personal’ equation or intimacy with photographers. In the old interview, Katrina recalled her interactions with a paparazzo during press meets at the start of her career. She added he would put his camera away, whenever she told him she did not wish to clicked.

In a 2018 interview to Mumbai Mirror, Katrina said, “The other day, footage from my first press interview for Boom popped up on my Instagram, and I found that 17-year-old girl with long hair really sweet. It’s like I’ve grown up here, but as I was telling Farah Khan (director-choreographer), the industry has changed. She reasoned that it’s because of the social media. So if you’re at an event or a party or even an interview, you are conscious of the fact that you are being recorded or a camera is on you, and that makes you conscious as you have to be responsible for what’s going to come out online.”

In the same interview, Katrina spoke about paparazzi culture, when asked what had changed in Bollywood. She had said, “Everything has. Back then, there were no bound scripts and dialogues were written on the set. Phones didn’t have cameras. I’d roam freely on bikes with my friends and hang out at coffee shops at night. There was no paparazzi lurking, the only photographer was pretty much Yogen Shah, and if you told him you didn’t want to be clicked, he would put his camera away and go off. I was very young then, and at press meets, he would sometimes gesture to me from the front row to sit up. There was so much of intimacy, it was all so personal… Not anymore.”

Katrina was last seen in Gurmmeet Singh’s Phone Bhoot that was released in theatres in November 2022. She played the role of a ghost in the film that also starred Siddhant Chaturvedi and Ishaan Khatter. Katrina has Farhan Akhtar’s Jee Le Zara, in which she will feature alongside Priyanka Chopra and Alia Bhatt, in pipeline. She also has the third film in the Tiger franchise, which will mark her reunion with Salman Khan in the spy film franchise after Ek Tha Tiger and Tiger Zinda Hai. Katrina will also be seen in Merry Christmas opposite Vijay Sethupathi.