Janhvi Kapoor graces the latest cover of Grazia India in a deeply introspective and self-aware conversation that marks a defining moment in her journey. Nearly five years after her last cover with the magazine, around the time of Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl and following her debut in Dhadak, Janhvi returns older, wiser, and firmly in control of her own narrative.
Reflecting on this new phase of her career, she shares,
“I’m hoping that this phase that begins right now with all my forthcoming releases that represent my choices exclusively. I think I have more agency with my choices now and a lot more clarity on the direction I want to go into”.
Opening up about her personality and how she navigates dilemmas, she candidly admits,
“I’m that person who if you speak to for five minutes and if I’m going through a career dilemma or any dilemma really, I’ll pour my heart out. I’ll literally ask anyone and everyone for advice, and then I’ll do whatever the hell I feel like”.
She further reflected on how those moments shaped her understanding of fashion and public life from a very young age. She says,
“With mom, it used to be such an exciting part of our lives when she would go for events. Styling looks, putting together things I’d be on NET-A-PORTER and 1stDibs, finding and ordering pieces for her to wear to events.”
On consciously embracing both commercial and unconventional choices, she reveals,
“I’ve entered a phase in my career where I was like I’m going to be commercial and thumka till the end of time and show people that I can do that as well as Homebound. I did this purely based on the need to work with this maker because I wanted that experience for myself as an artist, and, I believed in what the film was trying to say. It’s a risk I’m so proud of because right off the bat it wasn’t a very big role and I knew that from the get-go. It was a risk but it came from a very pure place that I’m extremely proud of.”
Speaking about creative evolution and the impact of working closely with her sister Rhea Kapoor, Janhvi reveals,
“The biggest shift for me personally has been working with Rhea didi (Kapoor) because she brings in so much culture and heritage into her work. The minute I started interacting with her it became so much more like a moment in time, and we started thinking about legacy”.
Known for her emotional intensity and cinematic imagination, she also shares,
“I over-romanticise everything, I perpetually live in a film, even if I’m in the car on my way back from the gym I act like I’m in an emo music video.”
Addressing the realities of public scrutiny and online chatter, Janhvi offers a grounded perspective.
“Everyone’s doing what they have to, sab ghar chalane ki koshish kar rahe hai. You need to be transactional – nothing is that deep. It’s stupid to occupy your brain for more than five minutes with this. Of course, it hurts to feel misunderstood or when it turns into bullying and harassment, the way I’ve seen happen with my brother sometimes and there’s no excuse for that kind of behaviour. Negativity fuels negativity and you just have to remove yourself from it.”
In a moment of vulnerability, she also reflects on her early years in the industry, saying,
“To be very honest, I was quite underconfident for the first three-four years of my career. And now that I’m reflecting on it, I associated being excited and passionate about dressing up with my time with her, so I lost interest in it.”