Shahid Kapoor recalls being written off as a leading man because he didn’t have enough ‘mardaangi’, was told, ‘Tera kuch nahi hone wala’

Shahid Kapoor was told that the Hindi film industry accepts only one new hero every five years, and because Hrithik Roshan and Vivek Oberoi had been embraced with open arms just before his debut, he stood no chance.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | Updated: July 10, 2023 07:55 AM IST

3 min read

Shahid Kapoor in a still from Kabir Singh.

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Actor Shahid Kapoor looked back on the limitations that he had to overcome in the early years of his career, when there wasn’t much room to experiment. In an interview, Shahid said that he was written off as a leading man despite delivering a hit debut, because producers couldn’t imagine whom to cast opposite him.

In an interview with mid-day, Shahid said that because of his boyish appearance, which served him well in romantic comedies, producers found it difficult to find suitable female actors to cast opposite him, because they all looked much older. He said that at that point, he’d take whatever came his way, and that he tells his half-brother Ishaan Khatter that he has it much easier now.

Also read | Shahid Kapoor had ‘limited’ interaction with father Pankaj Kapur while growing up: ‘I was loyal to my mother…’

He said, “A lot of the times, they said, ‘Teri picture toh chal gayi hai, par tujhe kis heroine ke saath cast karein (Your movie worked, but whom do we cast you opposite)?’ And they would name three-four big stars, and say, ‘Tu toh bachcha lagega inke saamne, tere andar mardaangi nahi aayi hai abhi, massy hero chahiye (You’ll look like a kid next to them, you’re not manly enough, we need a massy hero).’ I had to choose from whatever people were ready to offer me, even though I was a successful actor, because the content that had been written at that time was made for the older actors.”

Shahid continued, “Hrithik came in two years before me, then Vivek happened. So, I remember the year that I debuted, they told me, ‘Tera toh kuch nahi hone wala hai, kyunki industry 5 saal mein sirf ek hero ko accept karti hai, aur abhi industry ne 3 saal mein do ko accept kar liya hai, tera toh chance hi nahi hai (You have no chance of succeeding, because the industry only accepts one new hero every five years, and now it has accepted two in three years).’ I used to listen to all that, and go to producers, who used to say we can’t cast anybody opposite you.”

Shahid debuted with Ishq Vishk in 2003. In his autobiography Khullam Khulla, the late actor Rishi Kapoor wrote that he forbid his son Ranbir Kapoor from debuting as an actor before he turned 26, for exactly these reasons. “Any actor who starts his career very young encounters this difficulty. Shahid Kapoor and Imran Khan also found it difficult to pair with a suitable lead actress. It was one of the reasons I made Ranbir wait till he was 26 years old before acting in his first film,” he wrote.

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