By now actor Kareena Kapoor has realised one thing: the girl next door look works for her. Add a little Punjabi twist to it and she is a hit. She knew it the day she signed as the light hearted, full of life motormouth of a character called Geet in Imitiaz Ali’s Jab We Met. So impressed was Ali, that he flew Kapoor for a wafer ad to Punjab and shot her in the same `desi look’. In films like Dev, Omkara, Chameli, and most importantly Three Idiots, her down to earth, true to life characters catapulted her to the top most star space of people’s mind. Today, as she returns to the city with her next release - Bodyguard, starring Salman Khan, Kapoor agrees that the traditional, chirpy, all-things-bright persona suits her, and more than her, suits her fans.

“My fans love me in a desi avatar, in a traditional salwar kameez look,” she says. Her magenta kurti offset with lime-ice salwar and turquoise and fushcia pink dupatta with a rack of bangles in her hands, not to miss the glare of her solitaire, is an instant hit. “It’s a Manish Malhotra design, and he chose this mad mix of all the brightest possible colours,” says the actor who will be seen with all the top Khans this filmy season, starting with Bodyguard, then with Aamir Khan in a Reema Katgi film, with Shah Rukh in Ra.One and then with Saif Ali Khan in Agent Vinod.

Back to the film, and Kapoor says this Bodyguard is not the Kevin Costner Bodyguard. This one, she says, is an intense love story with amazing action and she plays a fun loving mischievous girl called Divya while Khan is the hot, dashing, suave Bodyguard. Speaking of which, while Khan is away to the US, he has left his personal bodyguard Shera for Kapoor. “Salman will be fine and he will be back in a week,” Kapoor answers worried fans. Health is any day more important, adds Kapoor, who says days of size zero are out and she’d rather be healthy and fit. “I like the way I look now,” she says.