But all that changed after a stray conversation with family members over dinner. “When I mentioned Danny’s name, my kids jumped with joy. Apparently, my son was a huge fan of his and even had posters of Danny’s film Trainspotting on his bedroom wall. He kind of forced me into calling them back and when they sent me the script, Harsh was the first to read it. He gave me the go ahead after which I went to meet Danny in Mumbai, without having read the script or my role in it but armed with two DVDs of his films, Beach and Trainspotting, which my kids wanted autographed,” laughs the actor, who is now in London with Boyle to celebrate the movie winning the People’s Choice Award at Toronto. The film will release in India in November.

Even though Kapoor’s role was first offered to Amitabh Bachchan and then to Shah Rukh Khan, he has no regrets about him not being the first choice. “I am glad I did it in the end. Working with Danny was a pleasure because he is so subtle and understated. He gave me a couple of referral points—Al Pacino in Scarface, for instance, and then pretty much let me do my thing. If you ask me, he is the real hero of the movie,” he gushes.

Now that the movie is behind him, Kapoor is busy with his home production, Neeraj Vohra’s Shortkut, which is near completion. But before that though, there is Subhash Ghai’s Yuvvraj, which also has Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif in it. Kapoor plays a person with mental disability but is an acoustic genius.

“Even though it became fashionable to do such a role after Koi Mil Gaya, I was among the first to have played a person with mental disability in Eeshwar, almost 20 years ago. In fact, it was even before Forrest Gump became an iconic hit. So in a way I flagged off the trend,” he shrugs.