Tuesday 10 May 2011

I will keep my surname:Kalki Koechlin |Newly-married star with Anurag Kashyap | Kalki Koechlin

For actor Kalki Koechlin, the biggest challenge right now is to juggle her career and marriage.

The newly-married star, who tied the knot with long-time boyfriend Anurag Kashyap in a small and private function in Kalhatty near Ooty, recently, says that taking out time for each is important. "I don't think our lives have changed dramatically, but yes, marriage does make one smile from the inside," she says.

Though the wedding appeared to be a hurried affair, Kalki says it had been in the works for a while. "It was not hurried and I never wanted a big affair. We had been planning this for months. But since we wanted it to be very private, we told no one about it," she reveals. In attendance at the wedding were Anurag's brother Abhinav, friends from Kalki's theatre groups and director Vikramaditya Motwane, along with his wife Ishika.



"The wedding itself was a very hands-on affair for us. We managed everything ourselves. I even did my own makeup," says Kalki, who wore a simple white-and-red Kanjeevaram saree while Anurag wore a dhoti. Ask her whether she will change her surname and the actress says, "I will keep my surname and he will keep his."
Barely days into her marriage, Kalki is busy promoting her film Shaitan, directed by Bejoy Nambiar and produced by Anurag, which will release next month. She plays an awkward, angsty teenager who gets involved with a group of party-crazy youth and things escalate beyond repair. "To prepare myself for this role, I listened to music from Ben Harper, Bright eyes, Elliot Smith and The Prodigy. I also watched films like Kids directed by Larry Clark," she says. Kalki is also starring in Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara directed by Zoya Akhtar alongside Hrithik Roshan, Katrina Kaif, Farhan Akhtar and Abhay Deol, in which she plays a character called Zoya. "It is a comical role and very different from Shaitan or Dev.D, but is by no means a caricature or stereotype, as the character Zoya makes it very real and believable," she explains.

Kalki is now busy shooting for Dibakar Banerjee's Shanghai, in which she plays the lead opposite Abhay Deol and Emraan Hashmi. She will also travel to Israel with her theatre group. "I've always enjoyed doing theatre and I'll continue doing so. For me, theatre is as important as films," she says. Will she do more films with Anurag? "There are none planned at the moment, but of course I'd want to work with him," she replies.