Katrina hearts Ranbir: First absurd denials, now a ho-hum admission

It has been all of five years since reports of Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif being the “newest item” of Bollywood surfaced and now, finally, Kaif has come out and admitted that Kapoor is a “huge part” of her life. In these five years, Alia Bhatt reportedly dated Arjun Kapoor (and denied it), Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh became ‘just friends’ and Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli played hide-and-seek with the Indian paparazzi. Salman Khan helped foreign women launch Bollywood careers and John Abraham got himself a Mrs Abraham who isn’t Bipasha Basu. While Kaif’s interview about Kapoor and her statement that marriage isn’t currently on the cards is making headlines in various publications, the question is did anyone think that they were just friends who happen to hang out and do mundane things like discuss films and songs? When the photographs of Kaif’s car being parked outside Kapoor’s home, Krishna Raj, surfaced, did anyone really think that Kaif  might just be Kapoor’s buddy, coming over to cry over exes while he doled out comfort food and some Pepsi (oh yes, abhi) to her? Perhaps not. Of course we wanted to hear a confirmation from the couple in question, but the reluctance on Kaif and Kapoor’s parts to come out with it has bordered on the absurd. For the first couple of years, there was an outright denial, as tends to be the practice in Bollywood. There were rumours that Kapoor had ‘hooked-up’ with Kaif during the shoot of Ajab Prem Ki Gajab Kahani, while he was still in relationship with Deepika Padukone. Padukone dropped hints of the same when she appeared on Koffee With Karan with Sonam Kapoor. Kaif, however, continued to deny having a relationship with Kapoor. [caption id=“attachment_1718919” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Courtesy: ibn live[/caption] In the years that passed, Kaif  followed up her denials with stony silence. Last year, a tabloid released photographs of Kaif holidaying with Kapoor in Spain — in a (mismatched) bikini no less — and the otherwise boring life of Bollywood writers became fun for a while as they churned out articles about how this was a confirmation of sorts that the two are dating. After almost a fortnight of those photos, Kaif finally issued a statement, but it wasn’t very informative. She just requested the media to stop carrying the images and refused to acknowledge who she was seeing at the time. This dogged insistence upon singlehood, particularly from actress, is a long-standing tradition in Bollywood where actresses tend to pull out the ‘I am too busy for love’ rabbit out of their PR hats. In the past, the reasoning behind this course of action was the prevalent belief that if an actress was not viewed as “available” by audiences, their careers were in danger since all they had to do in films was be a love interest. To be desirable was therefore top priority and producers in particular believed that if an actress ‘belonged’ to another man, then our morally upright male audience would steer clear of an actress. Fortunately, all that has clearly changed. Today we have married actresses who aren’t hiding their relationship statuses. Vidya Balan is at the top of her game and very much married to Siddharth Roy Kapoor. Kalki Koechlin had a very public wedding and separation. Kareena Kapoor’s marriage was one of the most covered events of 2012. After years of denial, Rani Mukerji came out of the closet about her relationship with producer Aditya Chopra when they got married last year. Yesteryear actresses like Kajol and Madhuri Dixit have re-emerged and the fact that they have husbands didn’t stop them from acting as onscreen wives and lovers. Dixit went so far as to play the part of a woman who had another woman as a lover in Dedh Ishqiya. Clearly none of these actress’ desirability has lessened as far as audiences are concerned because they are married. So why are the current crop of actresses like Kaif and Padukone making a mystery of their relationship statuses? The men aren’t much better. In an interview to Anupama Chopra, Ranveer Singh said that he and Padukone aren’t dating, to which Chopra countered and said, “I don’t believe you. You look like you are not telling the truth.” Before Singh could reply, Padukone laughingly told him, “Act better, no!” Maybe this is all a matter of maintaining privacy for their personal lives, but the uncomfortable truth is that if you make it in show business, you give up certain degree of privacy. Your personal life is as interesting as your professional life, if not more. The only purpose denials serve is to make the audience more curious, which is why it makes sense to give away a little bit about what’s happening behind the scenes; not everything, but just enough for the outside world to think they’re in the know. Perhaps today’s leading ladies should take a cue from actors like Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan. At the peak of superstardom, these two actors made no secret of being happily married and in love with their wives. It may not always stop rumours, but it makes the fans feel like they know their heroes’ and heroines’ stories.