Bollywood actress Karisma Kapoor says she now chooses projects selectively, working only when a role genuinely excites her, a mindset she says almost led her to reject her latest streaming series Brown.
The show, which premiered Friday on ZEE5, marks her return to long-form storytelling after 2020’s Mentalhood, also on the same platform.
Produced by Zee Studios and directed by Abhinay Deo, Brown is set in Kolkata and casts Kapoor as Rita Brown, a former top cop now battling alcoholism and personal trauma while being drawn into a murder investigation.
“I work from my heart, not from my head...I'm very content in the way I am. When I want to work, I work. When I don't want to, I don't. I don't really crave or miss it so much,” the 51-year-old told PTI in an interview.
She said she was initially hesitant to commit due to the demands of a long-format shoot.
“I was like, ‘Maybe I don't want to go and spend 50-60 days in another city’. It's a long form, a series with six, seven or eight episodes. But after I met Abhinay, and we went through the script, and I heard Rita Brown's character, of course I couldn't say no,” she said.
Kapoor said the role stood apart from anything she has done in her three-decade career.
“Everything Rita Brown does is something that Karisma Kapoor does not. She's an alcoholic, she's a pill popper, she's going through so many emotions, she doesn't eat food - I'm a foodie. I wanted to take up this challenge and do this character, which I thoroughly enjoyed doing,” she said.
“She's literally a broken woman trying to survive. She literally leaves her job to take care of herself or just be on her own. She's pulled back into this murder that happens in her city, and she can't cope. She's a real human character, a woman who's struggling, but at the same time you'll see her growth during the journey of Brown,” Kapoor added.
Now in her 35th year in the industry, Kapoor said she follows no fixed formula for longevity or reinvention.
“With me, it's own lane, own pace, own race. I do selected work. I don't take myself too seriously — I'm an actor, I go on set and leave my hands in the captain of the ship. That's what it is for actors. We just give ourselves to the director,” she said.
She also said she avoids watching her own films. “I've never watched a single movie of mine. Never in my entire career. I may watch a trailer or a song. It's always good to critique yourself and not be comfortable enough to sit and say, 'oh, let me watch myself.' And I believe it is a good thing -- to always be on your toes,” she said.
Brown also features Jisshu Sengupta, Surya Sharma and Soni Razdan in key roles.