Sonam Kapoor Exclusive Interview: “The Zoya Factor Is An Easy Breezy Fun Film”

Last seen in Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga (2019), Sonam Kapoor is back with yet another interesting movie, The Zoya Factor. After facing some delay in its release, the film enters theatres on 20^th September.

The movie, directed by Abhishek Sharma, is a silver screen adaptation of popular author Anuja Chauhan’s bestseller The Zoya Factor, which Sonam Kapoor loved reading.

While talking to STARBIZ correspondent Mohnish Singh, Sonam Kapoor reveals that after Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga, she wanted to be a part of an easy breezy fun film which is palatable to everyone. The actress also talks about her criteria of choosing scripts, how much she relates to her character Zoya in the movie, and much more.

Recently your father Anil Kapoor said that your choice of scripts is amazing and every time you leave him spellbound with your choices. So, what is your criteria when you choose a script?

I think I like to be engaged when I read something. I do not think that if I do this, will the film do well or not. I am like, ‘Am I enjoying the script when I read it. Is it fun?’ Like, for example, The Zoya Factor was not a difficult decision to make because it was just an easy, breezy fun film.

You do not have to use a lot of brain for it, you know. I liked the character which was fun. That is why I decided to do it. I was having a good time reading the script of the film.

The trailer of The Zoya Factor has a quirkiness attached to it and it is something that you like too. Even your film Khoobsurat (2014) had it. Does that connect with you on the script level?

Yes. You know, I cannot be constantly doing an Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga (2019) or a Neerja (2016). I have to, once in a while, break it with some easy films which are, you know, palatable to everybody.

The Zoya Factor is a film where people will go and have fun. It is not a big-budget film at all. It is made on a super constrained budget, and you are just there enjoying yourself. You know it is not a heavy film on you. It is an easy film and you have fun while doing it. It is not derogatory to men or woman in any way but, at the same time, it is a positive commercial film. So, once in a while, you have to break it with these kinds of film.

There was a time when people would think that films, where one needs not to use much of their brains, were complete commercial masala films, but now when you say such easy films, it means that there is something pleasing but meaningful also. So how has that cinema evolved and you have been a part of that journey?

I think cinema has evolved obviously for the kind of films that have been doing well in the last couple of months especially. You know there are smaller films and they are palatable to everybody and they are just easy breezy.

I have not seen Chhichhore (2019) or Dream Girl (2019), but they are just like fun films. You take something back from Chhichhore and you take something back from Dream Girl as well. When I read the script of The Zoya Factor, my face was like, ‘I need a break.’

I wouldn’t mind going with my girlfriends and watching this film for one and a half or two hours. I was just like I had a heavy week and I want to have some fun where it is not brainless but, at the same time, it is like a romantic comedy, it is sweet. I feel girls don’t have that anymore. Which films are being made for young girls today? I hope that I make more films like Khoobsurat.

Will The Zoya Factor be a Sonam Kapoor film like a girl gang genre?

I don’t know about the girl gang genre but I think there is an audience for it. I think we kind of disregard that audience. There is an audience for a Salman Khan film or an Akshay Kumar film or Shah Rukh Khan type of films.

The same way, I feel, there is an audience for a romantic comedy for girls also, films where girls can take their boyfriends and be like, ‘This is my kind of film and I want you to watch it. You will have a little bit of cricket there as well.’

You know I can see myself as this girl who is in mess and who ends up with the Indian cricket captain. And I feel that representation for young boys and girls is very important.

How much do you relate to Zoya? 

A lot, because I feel she is a mess and I used to be a mess. I think I am still a bit of a mess like she is a mess. Her professional life is not going the way she expected it to go, she has a non-existent love life, boys are constantly dumping her, her hair is never the way she wants it to be.

Her brother and her father are obsessed with cricket and that is all they talk about. She does not have a mom or anybody to talk girly stuff. Her life is bit of a mess.

The film is based on a book called Zoya Factor. So, did you read the book before signing the film?

So, I read the book and I am a big fan of Anuja Chauhan. She writes modern-day books for young girls and I read The Zoya Factor like in 2010. I loved it a lot but the book was already acquired and so I bought her another book Battle of Bittora. That book was equally amazing.

I did not expect The Zoya Factor to come to me but it did. I am so happy that I got to play one of the heroines. I am playing a modern-day Elizabeth Bennet.

Your father recently said that you have always been a lucky factor in his life.

I think he meant it in a way that whenever we look at girls who are born in this country, we look at them as a burden. I think he always feels that his two daughters have always been a blessing and lucky for him. I think that is the precedent that he wanted to set and that is what he meant. Because 90% of the population thinks of girls born into their families as something you have to take care of.

When representing cricket, which is a popular sport in every nook and corner of the country and people have such frenzy over it, what kind of challenges did you face?

That was not up to me, I just had to do my acting. That was up to the producers and the director of the film. I hope they lived up to the charge. I don’t know much about cricket, I just like to watch it. Sometimes I used to play gully cricket with my brothers but I don’t know how to play professional cricket. I think a bunch of cricketers watched our film and they thought it was pretty authentic.

There are actresses for whom the length of the character is not important. However, the role should be impactful. What is your take on that?

It has to be impactful. Does not matter the length of the role. Having said that, I have to have something to do in it. Like, I have to take the story forward in some way. I don t just want to be a decoration.

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