When Anubhav Sinha approached Rishi Kapoor for Mulk, he had quite a few apprehensions around how the veteran actor would react to the plotline and script of the film. However little did he know that he would be facing an altogether different kind of a query from him.
“The question that he asked me was – ‘Ok, so it all looks good, but then who is the hero of the film?’. I was zapped because I guess he said this in all humility. I had to tell him that ‘he’ is the hero of the film. He is the one who is the central protagonist of Mulk,” says Anubhav Sinha who is dabbling with a film belonging to this genre for the first time ever.
Known most for his work in films like Ra.One and Tum Bin, a superhero and a romantic film respectively, Anubhav was sure that he wanted only Rishi Kapoor for the film.
“It isn’t just that I haven’t worked with him before, I haven’t interacted much with him socially either. I wanted to reach out to him though for Mulk and took help from Mushtaq Sheikh to help arrange a meeting. I went all fired up with complete ammunition to narrate my neat two hour long script,” details Anubhav.
However the first surprise for him was there and then when Rishi Kapoor asked him to keep it all crisp and neat and share what the film was all about in just 20 minutes.
“I was zapped because I wasn’t prepared for that. As a veteran actor who has been in the business for near five decades, he felt that 20 minutes would be just fine for him to make up his mind. I excused myself, took a small break and then returned with a shorter format of narration. I am used to giving complete narrations; I am told I am good at that. Guess I am good at the shorter format as well since he said yes to the film there and then,” smiles Anubhav who is ready to make a statement with the film that features Taapsee Pannu as the ‘heroine’, though again not in a conventional format.
From playing an emotional character in a light hearted 102 Not Out, Rishi Kapoor could well be ruffling a few feathers in Mulk which is apparently not hesitating in calling a spade a spade.
“He came on board because he was totally convinced about the subject that we had in hand and the manner in which we wanted to convey it to the audience. As a senior and one of the most successful actors across generations, he certainly understands the intent of a filmmaker. Thankfully for my film, he knew what we were trying to say. You are going to witness a powerhouse performance no less from him,” he adds.
We look forward to that as well.
