If the first chapter was a masala action-romance, the second was a brooding, intense urban drama. Her relationship with Ranbir Kapoor (beginning around 2009) marked a deliberate, almost forceful pivot. Kapoor represented the opposite of Salman Khan: a method actor’s actor, an intellectual from Bollywood royalty, and a known charmer. This pairing, which thrived during the making of Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani and Raajneeti , offered Katrina a new on-screen and off-screen identity.