Relationships Talk

Karan Johar hosted Varun Dhawan and Katrina Kaif for his fourth episode of Koffee with Karan. The TV hour was filled with laughter and several revelations about the two stars. Did you know that Varun loves to eat cold pizzas at night? And that Katrina finds love in pancakes? Well, you know that now! Also, both have a lot of faith in Arjun Kapoor as a friend. When KJo asked Katrina who she thinks is a better friend – Varun or Arjun – she chose Arjun and Varun said Arjun too. Katrina also admitted that she makes fashion mistakes often and she just can’t get her airport look right.

If you missed Sunday’s episode, here are the juicy bits:

Varun makes his relationship official

It was an open secret in the industry that Varun has been dating fashion designer Natasha Dalal for quite some time. When Karan asked about her on the show, Varun admitted that they are dating and that he intends to marry her someday. When Karan asked Katrina about marriage, Varun added that Katrina has done a lot for herself, and that itself should be celebrated.

Katrina’s dating advice

When Karan asked her about her relationships and being single, she said that she was in a good space. She added that sometimes people in relationships depend a lot on others for happiness, which is bad for both the people in the relationship. She laughed off the serious conversation saying that the last single actress of her generation was giving love advice!

Varun wants equal pay for his co-stars

Varun revealed on the chat show that he and Katrina are doing a movie together. He also said that he has asked Katrina to demand more pay for her work in Bollywood. In fact, he has asked the producers of their upcoming movie for equal compensation for both the stars. He added that if Katrina’s compensation is lesser than his, he won’t do the movie.

Katrina’s misconception about Varun

Katrina had mentioned in the previous season of KWK that Varun and Arjun had started a hate club for Katrina because she didn’t show any interest in them. Denying the allegation, Varun said that they were angry because Salman Khan gave all his attention to Katrina instead of to them. Both the young actors used to hang out with Salman but that stopped when Katrina came into the picture

Karan will have an ‘emotional’ moment at Varun’s wedding

Speaking about weddings in the industry, Karan said that he will have an emotional moment at Varun’s wedding because he will feel as if he is giving away his son. Karan had launched Varun in Bollywood with Student Of The Year in 2012.

Salman’s guest appearance

As Varun will start working with Katrina Kaif, he asked Salman for advice on the dos and don’ts of working with the actress. Salman had quite a lot to say about his co-star. He added that Katrina rehearses for six hours everyday and will do so starting 20 days before the shoot begins. When you work with her, you cannot come to the sets and say you will learn the steps; you need to be thorough with your part while dancing with the actress, said Salman. He also added that she knows a lot of films, cinematography, direction and, strangely, medicine.

Varun does not want to swap careers with anyone

When asked who would Varun switch his career with, Ranbir or Ranveer, Varun said no one. He pointed out that both the stars have had flops in their career whereas Varun has never had one. Varun was last seen in Judwaa 2.

Two times when Varun gets emotional

Karan had compiled a video of Varun’s parents talking about his antics as a child. Varun added that there are only two instances when he cries — when he makes his parents proud and when he sees his brother Rohit playing with his (Rohit’s) daughter.

Katrina shops off people

Katrina’s friends had a lot to say about the actress too! Her gym trainer Yasmin Karachiwala said that she has a habit of taking people’s things If she likes them. Yasmin added that Katrina constantly takes clothes from her gym wardrobe. Varun agreed with them and said she had taken his sunglasses when they were in Dubai. Her friends added that Katrina loves pancakes and can eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Katrina and Varun both like Rajkummar Rao

When asked about which new age actor they like, both Varun and Katrina said that they like Rajkummar Rao. Rao was last seen in the horror-comedy Stree and known for his performances in movies like Newton, Shahid and Trapped Katrina also mentioned that she would like to work with Vicky Kaushal as they would look good together.

All my friends are breaking up.

It’s the age of it, I suppose. Like balayage or hot yoga. My friends and I are all hurtling towards Saturn’s return, so sooner or later something phenomenal was bound to happen in our lives. Some of them are switching careers. One has taken up extreme long distance running with all the solemnity of a priest. But most of my friends’ Saturns are barging through their front doors with the express purpose of causing their relationships to fall spectacularly apart.

Not me. I have been single for so many years that they’ve all begun to blend into each other like a melted tub of neapolitan ice cream. It’s probably why my friends who have broken up, and there have been so many of them recently, end up sitting in my flat, cradling my wine glasses between their hands, talking to me and not to any number of our other friends.

I’m single. It’s what I do, it’s what I’ve almost always done. And over the (many) years that I’ve been doing it, I’ve gotten pretty good at it. I’ve done every difficult experience, every table-for-one in foreign cities, every lonely coaster up at the bar, every single movie ticket, every countdown to midnight on New Year’s Eve, every uneven place-setting at a wedding reception on my own. At this point, I’m pretty much the Oprah of being on your own.

The other day I sat outside at a cafe with a friend of mine who had just broken up with her partner of several years, someone she had crossed the world to start a life with. Together, they had begun building something, brick-by-brick. And then, nothing. He untangled himself from her, picked apart all the frayed threads that had tied them together, and left their life behind. Not that it really matters – but also, it does – this friend of mine is an incredibly special person. She’s smart and funny and sparkly with life, so full of it that it fizzes right out of her. What’s that saying? To know her is to love her.

“What am I going to do?” she asked me, looking just over my shoulder. The sky was grey and overcast, but she was wearing her sunglasses. “What if I never meet someone again? What if I’m on my own forever?”

I know this question. It’s the question that rattles through me sometimes in the witching hours of life. I find myself drenched with the anxieties of this question when I least expect it. It will be a normal day and then this question will appear in my head, and the normal day is gone.

I’ve thought about this question a lot over the years. How could I not? If you’re single, it’s the kind of thing that’s always sitting in some corner of your mind. I’ve wondered if I would ever meet somebody again and get to know the stuff of them as they got to know mine. If somewhere on my horizon there was handing over each section of the newspaper after I was finished reading it on a Sunday morning; if there were fights about the Amazon Prime membership and who was going to buy toilet paper and whether or not someone’s colleague was a sexist idiot; if there was knowing all the idiosyncrasies of someone else as well as I know my own.

Of course I have wondered about all of that. And if I’ve learnt anything over my years of being single it is this: I want that. I hope that one day I will have it. I truly believe that I will. In those lowest, iciest points of life I remind myself how much love I have in me and how many people there are in the world who love and will love me for it.

But if there’s another thing that I’ve learnt over my years of being single it is that no matter what else happens: I am enough.

This is what I told my friend that morning. You are enough. Every part of of you is enough. Your story is enough, you are its beginning, middle and end. Your wonderful, squishy, lived-in life is enough. All your shit is enough. You, on your own, are complete, even as you are growing and changing and transforming, still, you are whole. You are everything that you need. You are enough.

A few months ago I interviewed a dating guru for a story and despite having no intention of doing so I immediately bought whatever it was that he was selling. I went in clear-headed and left muddled, he was that charming and that present.

When I spoke to him, he talked with some urgency about how women are always trying to get more out of someone who for whatever reason doesn’t want to give them more. The answer, he said, was not to keep squeezing something that would not be squeezed. We have no control over what someone gives us. What we do have control over is ourselves.

It’s a nice line. (He should print it on tee-shirts.) But there’s something in it, I think. There is so much love out there that is not mine to manipulate. But this life of mine is mine, and it is everything. It is strange and full and funny and sad, it is all my own. Its mornings and its late nights, its bookshelves, its brunches, its screens, its receipts, its dishes, its alarms, its scrapes, its fevers, its nightmares, its dreams… It’s all mine and – even on its own – it’s all enough.

Happy Singles Day, everybody. You are enough.

Read more stories like this, including How I learned to enjoy being single plus, How to detox from dating.

“I think it’s funny that these people, who don’t know me, [care about my love life.] [Sometimes] the people who ship Veronica and Archie ship me and K.J. too. It’s funny the amount of people who got upset when it was announced that I wasn’t dating K.J. You don’t know K.J. personally! If we were supposed to, we would be in love right now. If we were supposed to date, we would be dating. But we’re not, for a reason. We’re actors, on a show. Yeah, we have chemistry — we’re friends, we get along! — but that doesn’t mean we should date. It’s one thing to ship the characters, which I never care about, like ‘Varchie’ or ‘Barchie.’ It fascinates me that people ship real people together, because you just don’t know.”

Whether it was The Fosters, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, or even Austin & Ally, people all over the world have fallen in love with the internet’s new boyfriend, Noah Centineo. Even with several projects in the works, Noah continues to make time to take on more as he sets out to become one of film’s biggest breakout stars of 2018.

As his latest film, Swiped, finally gets released almost 2 years after filming, Noah is gearing up to play some of his biggest roles yet, while also returning to one character that got his career started. Seventeen got to talk to him about balancing his many projects, dating, and what could be next for Peter Kavinsky.

Here’s what he had to say…

17: Let’s start off talking about Swiped. How was it working with your dad on set?

Noah Centineo: It was surreal. It was so dope. He out-acted me. I was in there and I was like, ‘oh my god. I think you’re much better at this than me.’

17: Your character helps create a dating app. Have you been on dating apps at all or do you avoid them?

NC: The app in the film is unlike any app I’ve ever experienced. I’m not really on dating apps. I used to be when I was younger. I’d rather meet people in real life. Like if you meet someone at a yoga studio ’cause you do yoga, odds are they do yoga too. If you’re out and about and you meet people, you’re gonna meet people doing the things that you like to do.

17: Is there any dating advice you wish you had when you were younger?

NC: I feel like people can give you advice, but until you experience the good, bad, mistakes, and what works, you’re not really gonna be able to do it properly. Experience was my teacher.

17: You’ll be returning to The Fosters universe as Jesus in Good Trouble. How was it returning to that set?

NC: It was like going home for the holidays. Honestly, I love them [Cierra Ramirez and Maia Mitchell] so much, and [series creators] Peter [Paige], Bradley [Bredeweg], and Joanna [Johnson]. It’s such a family. And going back there and being able to work with family just felt so natural. I wanted to do more [than two episodes].

17: How have Jesus’ relationships with his sisters changed with this 5 year time jump?

NC: He’s definitely older. What I like about it is that the relationships among the characters are now far more a portrayal and a parallel for the relationship of the people [acting them]. We’ve all been around each other for so long and we know each other by now. And it’s similar with the characters like, at one point, when a sibling might’ve been upset with another sibling because of something they did, after, 20 years or 22 years of it, you’re like, ‘ah, that’s just the way they are,’ and it doesn’t bother you so much.

17: How different will Good Trouble be compared to The Fosters?

NC: There’s a lot of maturity in the show. You can expect the same Callie fighting for justice and Mariana fighting for herself and her rights. There are so many great messages in Good Trouble. I’m just excited to be a part of it. Oh, and it’s kind of completely different, but in the best way possible.

Courtesy of Noah Centineo

17: Your other film, The Stand-In, featured a reunion between you and your Austin & Ally co-star Laura Marano. What was it like working with her again after all these years?

NC: That was so cool. I love her to death. She’s so smart and so talented. She really just gives a sh*t about life and living conditions and what’s happening in the real world as far as our country and people’s rights. She’s just, across the board, such a lovely individual. Having a little reunion with her was sick. I mean, I think we had pretty great chemistry. I haven’t seen the cut, so maybe it’s miserable and it’s terrible, but I had a lot of fun on that film, especially with Laura.

17: It was just announced that you will be starring in a new film, Valet. What drew you to the project?

NC: It was given to me as a spec and once I read it, I hounded my team and I called them to say them to say I loved it so much and I’m passionate about this role. Whether it’s the relationship that he has with his mom and his family dynamic that his desire for his innate hunger for something more and when this something more comes, it’s just this wild scenario.

The director is Assaf Bernstein, he did Fauda on Netflix, and I sat down with him on Yom Kippur, for his last meal before his fast and we talked for just under two hours. The conversation was not about the movie, it was about subject matters that were very, very close to our hearts and things we were going through and the world and we just dove right into the deep end of it. And then, we left. Fast forward a week and a half, two weeks, I’m backstage at [Jimmy] Kimmel and 20 minutes before I go on, my manager gets a phone call saying, ‘if you want the role, it’s his.’ I smiled and I was smiling the rest of the night.

17: Even with all your projects, are you hoping for a sequel for To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before?

NC: Yeah! F*ck yeah! I would love to. That would be such a gift. I would absolutely love to. That would be a gift to be able to go back to Vancouver and hang out with Lana, Israel, and Trezzo, and everyone. That would be a gift.

17: And where would you want to see Peter Kavinsky in the sequel?

NC: Well, you know, it’s already written, so I don’t really have a say in it. ::laughs::

17: What are you doing for self-care during your crazy schedule?

NC: A couple of things. Sleep is very important. Meditation has been very, very helpful. You know, even if it’s just 5 minutes a day. And watching what I eat. Pretty much taking care of my body and taking care of my mind and letting myself relax, especially when I’m with friends and let out that steam. It’s been a great amount of work and I couldn’t be more grateful for it and happy about it and for as much as that work goes, I also have to learn to decompress. I’ve been going out to Joshua Tree for a few times and Redlands. Just hanging with friends and staying low key and it’s been lovely. And I would recommend that to other people to do the same. Keep those that love you close and take care of yourself.

Tamara Fuentes is the Entertainment Editor at Seventeen. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram!