Sitting pretty in blue jeans and a white sleeveless top, Kitu Gidwani looks just like she used to back then, when she had a nation hooked to her Air Hostess on Doordarshan.

“How have I remained the same?” she asks and rolls her eyes. “I think it has to do with the state of mind. I have evolved as a person. I am a non-conformist. I will not do something just because everybody is doing it. So, if you don’t allow the pressure to get to you and are in touch with yourself, I think you look young,” smiles the 40-something-but-forever-young Kitu.

Her most recent evolution has been as an art collector. She would rather spend two evenings “visiting art shows than watching crappy films”. “I find art much more exciting and stimulating than films or theatre. I have been interested in art for the past two years and am still learning… I used to love drawing and sketching,” smiles the petite beauty, in town to attend an art exhibition at Akar Prakar in Hindusthan Park (picture above by Aranya Sen).

But why do we see so few films starring Kitu? “It’s because people come to me with very few scripts and some of the roles are negligible... Most are roles of mothers I keep refusing,” she shrugs.

The reason behind signing Dil Diya Hai, co-starring Emraan Hashmi and Ashmit Patel, was because it offered a substantial role and a chance to work with Mithun Chakraborty.

“It was very exciting! When my boyfriend heard about it, he said ‘you must do the film with Mithunda’,” she laughs.

In recent times, Kitu did a cameo in Anand Rai’s film, starring Jimmy Sheirgill, Kay Kay and Nandana Dev Sen. Two of her favourite films remain Rajan Khosa’s Dance of the Wind and Govind Nihalani’s Rukmavati Ki Haveli.

Theatre and television will keep Kitu busy for the next six months. In the pipeline are a couple of plays — one on three of Ibsen’s heroines and the other an act on the Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif.

On the small screen, there’s a saas-bahu soap on Sony where she plays “a mother with a difference”. For the most glamorous TV face of the Eighties, fitting into the post-cable TV mould has not been easy.

“Films are more interesting than TV today. Back then, it was just the opposite. Creativity has gone with the channels. Money is the bottom line. There’s no acting needed in the saas-bahu serials, which are quite regressive. We used to give everything emotionally to acting when we did Junoon and Swabhiman.”

Yet, Kitu is still fond of TV. “It has given me so much… But I think I will move to direction or production in the next four-five years,” says she with a serious look, before adding with a smile and a twinkle in her eyes: “That’s what my astrologer says!”