'He has that ability to just let me run around like steam coming out of a pot'

'Calmness and stability has come into my life after being married to Vicky Kaushal.'
'I can be very hyper.'
'I can panic about small things.'
'I overthink.'
'He is the exact opposite of all of that.'

Katrina Kaif returns with the genre she loves best: Comedy.

The actor will be seen in the horror comedy Phone Bhoot, where she plays a ghost. She has Siddhant Chaturvedi and Ishaan Khatter for company in the film.

Does she believe in ghosts?

Katrina tells Rediff.com Contributor Mohnish Singh, "Me, I am terrified of everything. I am a very susceptible watcher. Like if I watch anything scary at night, I will have bad dreams for two nights."

How was the experience of working in a horror comedy for the first time in your career?

Actually, it's only today that I realised my last few films have either been action or drama or very serious, like Tiger Zinda Hai, Zero, Bharat and Sooryavanshi.

I am coming back to comedy after a while.

Comedy is a genre that I absolutely adore.

Some of my favourite films and experiences are from David Dhawan's Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya and Partner and from Welcome to Singh Is King to Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani to Mere Brother Ki Dulhan.

All my memories with them are always spontaneity, laughter and more than anything, the joy you see on people's faces when they are having a good time in cinema halls.

Ravi (Shankaran) and Jassi (Jasvinder Singh Bath) are the writers of Phone Booth, and they are geeks when it comes to horror comedies.

Right from old-fashioned horror films to your more modern quirky comedies, from Andaz Apna Apna to Delhi Belly, they are so knowledgeable that they know every beat, every line, every joke, every punch line, and this film is an extension of that passion.

There is tongue-in-cheek, funny, and self-deprecating humour in the film.

There are a lot of one-liners.

But more than anything, what I really loved were these two mad, zany, characters, played by Ishaan Khattar and Siddhant Chaturvedi.

It brought me back to the kind of fun you have had with Aamir Khan and Salman Khan's characters in Andaz Apna Apna.

Of course, that's an iconic, legendary film.

Still, Phone Bhoot gave me a glimpse of that.

You play a ghost in the film. Are you scared of ghosts? Have you experienced any paranormal activity?

I definitely believe there are other dimensions to what we see. That’s undeniable.

Like the energetic field, you know, the quantum field is something undeniable.

What exists, how it all plays, that is something that is hard to tell but like you said, I do believe that you attract what you give out and if you can control what you give out, then you control what you attract back to a certain extent.

Me, I am terrified of everything.

I am a very susceptible watcher. Like if I watch anything scary at night, I will have bad dreams for two nights.

I have to be very careful.

I have to watch nice, fun, fluffy, light films because I get very easily impacted, you know, like a sponge.

But Phone Booth is a horror comedy. It's not a horror film so that genre suited me well.

It takes all the traditional and clichéd things and then makes a joke out of it and for me, that's what I really liked.

That's the kind of genre I really enjoy.

Do you have the fear of being haunted?

Yeah. I think I am better now, but before, I used to have a very tough time sleeping alone, especially if you have been raised in a family with so many girls.

You are always sharing the bedroom with someone or the other.

You are coming back after Sooryavanshi, so was it a conscious decision to do a lighter film after an out-and-out actioner?

Not at all.

Sooryavanshi was meant to release in 2020 and then COVID hit.

These are the events that we cannot control. So, you have to just keep going with it.

Finally, when we were able to release the film, we released it in theatres.

Sooryavanshi was fantastic and now Phone Bhoot is organically the next film of mine which is releasing and I think it's the right kind of light fun entertainer.

Having said that, I am not a big believer that this is the genre that works in cinema.

I think this is an entertaining film which is, you know, truly going to give everyone the experience that it deserves in cinemas.

You have always been a private person, but in the last few years, especially after getting married, you have become much more open.

I think the part about not talking about myself, you know, that's more of a Cancerian trait.

I think a lot of calmness and stability has come into my life after being married to Vicky Kaushal.

He is like the perfect, counter-balanced person to me.

I can be very hyper.

I can panic about small things.

I overthink.

He is the exact opposite of all of that.

He is very calm. He does not think too much. He is very balanced. He does not take stress.

So it's a nice balance to have.

He has that ability to calm me down, but he also has that ability to just let me be and run around like steam coming out of a pot.

You know, just sit quietly and wait for me to calm down.

I think we balance each other.