The definition of a Hero in the Hindi Film Industry starts and ends with ‘Macho’ and to come and change the essence of it needs a lot of guts. Prathishtha Malhotra sits down with Arjun Kapoor to know how it feels to be the torch bearer of a change in our cinema.
We saw you take a hiatus post ‘Tevar’ released. Did you feel exhausted post the film as you had been working continuously for the last couple of years?
> I had got bored of seeing myself, imagine what would happen to you guys. I am sure you would be frustrated to see me. You know nothing really happened with ‘Tevar’ because everyone had seen me in a film like 3 months before ‘Tevar’ had released. I had a release in Feb, April, September and then in January. In 12 months, I had delivered four films, it is not right. It saturates the market. People feel that, abhi toh ‘Gunday’ mein yeh hi kar raha tha… Audiences hold on to one film and they let go of it after three four months. I felt it was the correct time to take a break and I anyway wanted to even if ‘Tevar’ would have worked. I had got very badly injured during ‘Tevar’ and had a lot of health issues which I couldn’t deal with as I was shooting and promoting continuously. It just happened that the film didn’t do well and I took a break so many people thought that I have left the work after getting depressed. But that wasn’t the case. I obviously felt bad when the film didn’t work because you know it is an emotional ride but I had made my peace with it. I am hungry for good work but to be able to give your hundred percent, you need to be your hundred percent. I had not taken a break for a single day since the day ‘Ishaqzaade’ released as I was loving it so much. But it got me exhausted. Three years of working on a film set is very draining.
Do you feel ‘Ki and Ka’ is an experiment?
> What happens is that commercial films make more noise. You always remember the big films of every actor. For instance, ‘Finding Fanny’ is not something that people will remember in the first conversation that you have. But if you look at my filmography, it is an English film that I have done about a mad postman in Goa. It is a first of its kind. Like Varun has done ‘Badlapur’, it is a dark film to do when he had a popcorn image and he could just have continued doing that. Ranveer to do ‘Bajirao Mastani…’ I mean to take the onus upon himself and shave his head off to sit for one and a half year is a big risk. It is a commercial director but the budget and the magnanimity of the film and most importantly to be able to carry the film on his shoulders. You have to have the ability to back yourself every morning when you’re shooting. Ranbir doing ‘Barfi’ at that time. I think every actor has that one film in their filmography where they have pushed the envelope. I have done it too, but this kind of experimenting which goes against the grain of being a ‘hero’, the upbringing that we have about what a hero does and what he doesn’t is challenged.
Do you think it is tough to get audience for films that challenge the essence of being a quintessential Bollywood narrative?
> It is very difficult to make people pay money to watch a film now. It has to be really worth it because the tickets are very expensive. It is also available on TV in like two months so the choice is that if not right then one can wait for a few weeks and watch it on TV. We sit in closed rooms and talk about the reaction we get on twitter but the true essence of a successful film is if people walk in the theatre to watch it. I feel pretty confident about ‘Ki & Ka’ and you know we have done something which is genuinely unique and no one can take this away from us. I don’t know on what level it works but I definitely feel that it will have inroads into that audience who has been craving for something different to watch. Now how big that audience is, I don’t know. That only time will tell.
Your next film ‘Half Girlfriend’ also happens to be Chetan Bhagat’s book. Did you try reading the book this time?
> For me the material is the script and I have never equated it to the book because I am not a reader. I would like to believe that since Chetan is a part of ‘Half Girlfriend’, we have only bettered the script. He is co-producing it too. I think you have to have that faith in the director. I don’t know too much about books honestly. I had a fantastic director for ‘2 States’, and I feel that MohitSuri is a very capable director as well.
It has been a few years in the industry for you now. Do you still take things to heart or have you started to let it go?
> I must have been a part of the industry but from a very third person perspective. I was just somebody’s son hanging. You have to become practically less emotional because a lot of people will tell you tere bas kanahi hai… and many would discourage you. You need to be more practical and less emotional. You have to detach yourself from a lot of things when you’re trying to be an actor. Once you become an actor, there are many other things that you have to detach from. See, actors start living in vacuum so you have to be practical and cannot be emotional in this profession because everybody is selfish and everyone is trying to be successful. Everyone is going for the same thing you’re going for.
