Karisma Kapoor on ‘Brown’: I work only when a project moves me

Actor Karisma Kapoor said she now works only on roles that genuinely excite her, nearly turning down her series “Brown”. She plays a troubled cop in the ZEE5 show and described the character as one of her most challenging roles

Mumbai: Actor Karisma Kapoor says she has reached a stage in her career where she works only when a project genuinely excites her, revealing that this approach nearly made her turn down “Brown”, in which she plays one of the most compelling roles of her career.

The series, which debuted on streaming service ZEE5 on Friday, features Karisma as a cop battling addiction and her own demons.

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“I work from my heart, not from my head…I’m very content in the way I am. When I want to work, I work. When I don’t want to, I don’t. I don’t really crave or miss it so much,” the 51-year-old told PTI in an interview.

“Brown” marks her series project after 2020’s “Mentalhood”, which also came out on Zee5. When the show came to her, Karisma said she was hesitant as she wasn’t keen on committing to a project that demanded a long schedule.

“I was like, ‘Maybe I don’t want to go and spend 50-60 days in another city’. It’s a long form, a series with six, seven or eight episodes. But after I met Abhinay, and we went through the script, and I heard Rita Brown’s character, of course I couldn’t say no,” she said.

Set in Kolkata, “Brown” is directed by Abhinay Deo of “Delhi Belly” fame and produced by Zee Studios. In the series, Karisma plays Rita Brown, once the city’s finest cop, now a disgraced, alcoholic officer haunted by her past. She is pulled back to investigate a series of brutal murders.

The actor said the character was unlike anything she has played in her three-decade-long career where she has featured in hits such as “Andaz Apna Apna”, “Raja Hindustani”, “Dil To Pagal Hai”, “Biwi No.1”, “Hero No. 1”, “Fiza” and “Zubeidaa”. “Everything Rita Brown does is something that Karisma Kapoor does not. She’s an alcoholic, she’s a pill popper, she’s going through so many emotions, she doesn’t eat food – I’m a foodie. I wanted to take up this challenge and do this character, which I thoroughly enjoyed doing,” she said.
Karisma said she was intrigued by the fact that Rita was not just a “regular cop with a backstory”.

“She’s literally a broken woman trying to survive. She literally leaves her job to take care of herself or just be on her own. She’s pulled back into this murder that happens in her city, and she can’t cope. “She’s a real human character, a woman who’s struggling, but at the same time you’ll see her growth during the journey of ‘Brown’,” she said.

Now in her 35th year in the industry, Karisma said she has no particular formula for longevity or reinvention. “With me, it’s own lane, own pace, own race. I do selected work. I don’t take myself too seriously – I’m an actor, I go on set and leave my hands in the captain of the ship. That’s what it is for actors. We just give ourselves to the director,” she said.

Karisma also revealed that she never watches her own work. “I’ve never watched a single movie of mine. Never in my entire career. I may watch a trailer or a song. It’s always good to critique yourself and not be comfortable enough to sit and say, ‘oh, let me watch myself.’ And I believe it is a good thing — to always be on your toes,” she said. “Brown” also stars Jisshu Sengupta, Surya Sharma and Soni Razdan in pivotal roles.