Before Anil Kapoor sits down for a chat in Juhu’s JW Marriott, the actor makes a beeline for someone he recognises. “ Arrey, kaise ho mere dost? (How are you, my friend?)” his voice booms uninhibitedly through the room. He then shifts his interviews from a curtained hall to the sunnier Lotus Café right outside. Despite the music, noisy chatter and frequent glances in his direction, Kapoor seems unperturbed. In between bites of his sandwich, a late lunch, he talks about his upcoming release Fanney Khan .
“Around five years back [co-producer Rakeysh Omprakash] Mehra approached me,” Kapoor says about the idea of remaking the Belgian film called Everybody’s Famous! (2000). “I had my platter full,” he continues, “but [the film] didn’t happen and it came back to me. I guess I was destined to do this role.” The actor adds that for Mehra and director Atul Manjrekar, Kapoor had always been the first option to play the role of the father. In this version, Kapoor plays a taxi driver who goes to great lengths to turn his young daughter into a singing sensation – a dream the father once had for himself.
Going the extra mile
Kapoor has seen the original, but he underlines the fact that the film has been adapted to an Indian setting without unnecessarily tampering the essence of the original satire.
“It’ll be a little more emotional,” says Kapoor about his performance. “For me it was a bigger challenge,” he asserts, “because people have seen me so often. So I [had to] work extra hard and make an extra effort to make it real and for people to connect with the character.”
As the conversation progresses, it becomes evident that the actor is drawn to roles of men striving to make something of themselves because it reminds him of his beginnings. In Woh Saat Din (1983) Kapoor played a struggling singer and in Mr. India (1987) he was a street violinist. “I just wanted to act and be in front of the camera, so I gave [and] passed the audition without telling my parents,” the actor says about snagging a role at 14 as Shashi Kapoor’s younger self in Tu Payal Mein Geet – filmed and shelved in the early ’70s. “I learnt sitar and shot for the film. My first scene was with the great Pran,” he says smiling. “I’ve gone through the struggle,” he continues, “[I’ve been] rejected, humiliated, frustrated, and I felt like a loser.”
Asked about the effect of his first film getting shelved, and it’s a surprise that Kapoor says simply, “I was happy.” He even adds that he had heard people say that child actors don’t become stars and out of sheer superstition says he was glad it wasn’t made.
“ Mera experience ho gaya, camera bhi face kiya [I had gotten experience and even faced the camera], so I was happy,” he says as he takes a bite of his sandwich.
New partners in acting
While the actor is performing alongside Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for the third time and after 18 years – there was Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai (2000) and Taal (1999) – he feels like no time has lapsed. But Kapoor will be starring for the first time with Rajkummar Rao, and it’s clear the senior actor has hit it off with his co-star.
“I saw him first in Citylights (2014), and I loved his work,” Kapoor says, adding that when he learnt Rao was joining the cast of Fanney Khan , he was extremely excited. “Also, Sonam is very fond of him,” Kapoor says about his daughter, who worked with Rao on the comedy Dolly ki Doli (2015). “She always had good things to say about him. That makes a difference na?”
Next year will have the three of them – Rao and the father-daughter duo – and Juhi Chawla on screen together for Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga .
But for now Kapoor is quite obviously excited about Total Dhamaal , the third instalment of the Dhamaal series, and reuniting with both director Indra Kumar and co-star Madhuri Dixit after many years.
