Shahid Kapoor: ‘Cinema can surprise you, throw you off. That is why I fell in love with the movies’

It started with Kaminey. What is this dark side you had been hiding?

Actually, as an actor, if you don’t do things like that then you are more of a star, not an actor. As an actor, you have to go deeper into the human psyche and play characters which are not just all nice and good and run around trees. I think for over 100 years, cinema has been much more than that. You need to entertain people, you need to give them a great time but it’s about storytelling.

I’ve been working for 21 years now and I think you can only keep people interested in what you do, if you explore, take risks, make mistakes, if you dig deeper, if you try to put art in cinema. What keeps you in a theatre for two-and-a-half hours as opposed to two minutes in a trailer is the story, the character, the emotion, the relationship, the complexity, it is being surprised, seeing things that are unexpected. I think that is what cinema does in its true, pure, raw unadulterated amazing form. It can shock you, surprise you, and throw you off and for me that is why I fell in love with the movies. I don’t care what the trend is, I will always chase what I think allows me to explore myself as an artiste and give something new to the audience.

Let’s go back to Delhi and to Press Enclave and a boy called Sasha growing up there. So when Delhi was all about Bittu and Sonu how did you get the name Sasha?

My maternal grandparents were unique because they knew Urdu and Russian. My name was Shahid but I don’t know why everyone at home called me Sasha — in Russian I think it means rabbit. Maybe I looked like that!

What was your childhood like? Both your parents were actors and your father Pankaj Kapur was in Karamchand around that time. Were you aware of how popular they were?

My parents were from Delhi originally but my dad shifted to Bombay. I was in Delhi with my mom and my maternal grandparents so most of my childhood memories of Delhi are about Press Enclave and Gyan Bharti, my school. My grandfather used to drop me there and I had a lot of friends in my building. There were eight-nine wings and two- or three-floor buildings and gardens in the middle so everybody played together. There are lovely memories of Holi and Diwali and all festivals and of going with my mom (Neelima Azeem) to the Kathak Kendra. She was a beautiful Kathak dancer and represented India. I think I have five per cent of her dance (talent). She was a student of Pandit Birju Maharaj. When I was born in 1981, my mom was only 20 years old. She took her dance very seriously. In that era, to have parents who supported you in your artistic endeavour was a rare thing, especially since my mom wanted to pursue dance professionally. They supported her and that was fantastic.

We used to visit dad. He was in Bombay and at that time travelling was very expensive, so I used to meet him sometimes. I knew that he was a popular star. At that time, his Karamchand serial had come out, and wherever he went, people used to follow him and he was fed carrots everywhere.

Now that we are talking about Neelima ma’am, I recall this heartwarming anecdote she wrote in a book about how when you were all of six she was touring in Belgium and a man was hassling her and you stood up to him and said, ‘you face me’.

(I said) you deal with me first before you talk to my mom. My mom was so young when I was born and we were kind of friends. She always took me with her everywhere and as the elder son and since my dad was not there, I used to feel very responsible.

You started working young. At 15, you were part of Shiamak Davar’s troupe, by 21 and 22 you had already made your debut with Ishq Vishk (2003). What made you start so early?

I think both my parents are super achievers and I just wanted to prove myself and do something substantial. I used to feel that you have to do something in life, you should not waste your life like this and because my mom was a single parent and till the time I was 14-15 years old, I wanted to support her. I felt that she was very lonely, she worked hard and the pressure of the whole family was on her. So, I thought that the sooner I grow up, the better I can do something. Actually, I just wanted to start making some money.

When I got my first music video, my first ad, it was by chance. Sometimes I went out with a friend, sometimes someone spotted me, so the first one or two chances that I got were sent by destiny to me.

At what age and at what point of your life did your relationship with your father get strengthened and become what it is today?

I think, after I turned 18, because before that, you are in school, you are busy. This happens as adults, as men, when you sit and talk to each other. As I grew older, I think our understanding increased, we spent a lot of time together, he made an effort and I also made an effort, especially after I came to Bombay, so that we could meet and spend time together, and slowly that relationship developed.

Your parents were actors but you refused to take their help when you were struggling.

My mom herself was trying to find work at that time so I don’t think she was in a position (to help) and with dad I didn’t have that kind of a relationship where I would ask him. Also, he too had made his (career) through his hard work. In our house, it was always said that you have to make a place for yourself in the world through work and earn money through work.

Let’s move on to your younger brother, Ishaan Khatter, whose arc is different from yours. Starting with Majid Majidi, he went on to Dharma, did A Suitable Boy and we recently saw him with Nicole Kidman. So do you guys sit down and discuss careers?

No, I give it (advice) to him but he doesn’t take it. I was also the same when I was that way, you want to do everything on your own. Having said that, Ishaan gives me a lot of respect. He himself is a very talented actor and I feel that his better work will come in the coming years. He is very pure at heart, he finds a certain kind of cinema very appealing and he is chasing that. I think that is why he made his way into Hollywood and today, like you said, he has worked with Nicole Kidman and we are so proud of him.

We are actually very chilled out, me, Mira and Ishaan. Very often, we hang out together and they are both very opinionated and so am I, so we have some very healthy disagreements and arguments. But one thing that all three of us have agreed upon is to trust each other implicitly.

Mira is known to speak her mind. So tell us, has she adapted to yourworld? In fact, the sense one gets looking at it from the outside is that she adapted to it faster than you did perhaps?

Mira is inherently more confident than me. Those who are so comfortable with themselves don’t need any achievement to feel confident. Mira is that kind of person. She really believes in herself and I’ve learned that from her. Having said that, we don’t mingle that much in the film industry. Our life is more oriented towards family and we spend most of our time with our family and close friends.

At an Indian Express event we had asked Imtiaz Ali where Geet and Aditya from Jab We Met would be today and he had replied, ‘at the divorce lawyers’. What would be your answer?

That’s actually a fun idea: that Geet and Aditya are now breaking up because they are frustrated with each other. Aditya is like, ‘She is her own favourite, who can ever put up with her’?

In the light of the recent attack on Saif Ali Khan, as actors, you all are quite vulnerable. Your lives are out there in public, everyone knows where you live, where you gym. Being a star is also about being larger than life, having a flashy lifestyle. Does that make you more of a target?

Mumbai is a very safe city and this is a very shocking incident. This can happen to anyone, so if it had happened to a regular person then we should be equally concerned. Because he is a celebrity, there is a lot of talk about it but it is definitely something that we should look into and the security in your residential complex needs to be taken seriously. I am sure everybody is shocked with what happened. We are just happy to see that he (Saif) is back and that he is doing well.

BTS from Shahid’s Best

Udta Punjab (2016)

Abhishek Chaubey called you a saint. He said, “he doesn’t smoke, drink or eat non-veg”, and he had to turn you into a drug addict.

My question to him was, why have you come to me? I don’t know what it is to be one (an addict), so how will I do it? But when you do something outside your comfort zone, you might fail, but if you don’t, it will give you a different kind of confidence.

Haider (2014)

This is the scene where you see your father’s grave. Vishal Bhardwaj said you were really crying in the scene and he didn’t have the heart to say ‘cut’.

Haider has probably been one of my most difficult films. We were shooting this scene in Kashmir, in a forest reserve, with two-and-a-half feet of snow. When Naseer uncle (Naseeruddin Shah) did a workshop at NSD on imagination, he said just as a painter puts everything on paper, map it (the situation) in your head. That advice helped me here.

Padmavat (2018)

Sanjay Leela Bhansali, a perfectionist himself, said that you always wanted to do more reshoots. He had to tell you, ‘don’t punish yourself’.

This was my first (period film). So, I wanted a little more time to understand it. I like to be honest in the moment and not overthink it but there are certain films, where in your body language and tone of talking you cannot do those things just like that, structured work has to happen. That was the challenge in this film.

Vivah (2006)

Sooraj Barjatya said you had no idea about arranged marriages, so while wearing a turban in a scene you said, ‘Main jab shadi karunga main to casual rakhunga (I’ll keep it casual).

Vivah was my practice session. When I was doing this film, I used to tell my friends, how can anybody have an arranged marriage. I used to find the scenes very funny too… Kids in big cities have no idea about the world.