It is important to take risks, says Katrina

Five years into Bollywood, Britain-born actress Katrina Kaif is proud that she could prove wrong all those people who wrote her off during her initial days in the industry. She is one of the few actresses who can boast of giving six hits in a row.

"When I started, people were not only writing me off for my strong British accent, there were many others who tried to prevent me from making it till here," Katrina told IANS in an interview in New Delhi.

"They didn't do so in an aggressive or excessive manner, but they used to say things like 'I don't know...' and 'I'm not sure...' that would suggest a not-so-positive approach towards me. But I proved myself ultimately.

"I always try and push myself to exceed expectations. I use this ideology in a positive way," she explained.

Katrina was emphatic when she spoke of her belief in destiny.

"The great thing about life is that you never know what can happen and there's no limitation to it. Someone can tell you that you can never be this and never be that. It's not true. Anyone can be what he wants to be and destiny plays a major part in it. God has of course been very kind to me.

"I believe that everyone should try and live their dreams, follow them and they might just come true someday," Katrina said.

From her disastrous debut with "Boom" in 2003 to five hits in a row in 2007, the 24-year-old has not only worked hard on her acting skills, she has also shown a marked improvement in her Hindi dialogue delivery.

Commenting on her improved accent, Katrina - born of a Kashmiri father and a British mother - said: "Interacting with various people on and off the sets and doing some eight Hindi movies, dealing with Hindi scripts, practising dialogue delivery ... I think that in itself has taught me and helped me improve my accent."

Katrina is in the news nowadays for having delivered one box office dud "Yuvvraaj" after delivering six back-to-back hits including "Namastey London", "Apne", "Partner', "Welcome", "Race" and "Singh Is Kinng".

After so many hits, she was tagged as a lucky mascot for producers by trade pundits, but the actress is not pleased with the "lucky" label.

"'Lucky mascot' doesn't make any sense. It is such an illogical statement. A successful film is a combination of a good director, good music, intelligent script, good timing, destiny, everybody's efforts and audience's reaction. There isn't a reason or an explanation that you can tag a person as lucky," she remarked.

In her career, Katrina has predominantly dabbled in comedies, but she has lately "felt the need to progress a bit" and try her hand at different things.

"If you see Akshay Kumar, he was an action hero and then he went to comedy and found out his real calling. It took him to new heights of superstardom. I think it is important to take risks and figure out what really suits you.

"Every actor has a strength like Aamir does romance and Akshay does comedy, but I don't know my strength yet.

"If I get a contrast role in one film like where one get-up has me play a simple, shy and homely girl, the other has me as a brass and loud girl, I would definitely do that," she said in an excited tone.

As of now, Katrina has a number of films in her kitty.

She is doing two films with Ranbir Kapoor including "Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani" by Rajkumar Santoshi. She is also working with Prakash Jha on his multi-starrer "Rajniti".

These apart, she has one comedy film in hand and a two-film deal each with UTV and TV 18 respectively.

Indo-Asian News Service