Anil Kapoor
GOING STEADY, GROWING STRONGER

I vividly remember that meeting of some of the leading filmmakers of the Eighties. They were discussing the future of a new actor called Anil Kapoor. The majority saw no hope for him. They said he had ‘chinky eyes’, very long hair which didn’t match his small face, in short he had a personality which didn’t go with the image of the typical Hindi film hero of the times. They said he would last for a short while and then fade away like so many other ambitious young men before him. It seemed as if Anil had overheard them and then determined to prove them positively wrong. He grew better from film to film. He started with Woh Saat Din and proved that he was no ordinary actor. Some of the more

inspired critics even compared him to the young Raj Kapoor and Anil only loved the comparison. He made it very clear that he didn’t want to be another Raj Kapoor. He realised that he had to keep up with the competition among the young actors coming up with him. He knew very well that he had to succeed come what may because his background of belonging to a film family had taught him and made him fully aware that there was only one place for failures - the dustbin of oblivion. He soon came into his own inspite of all the competition and challenges with films like Mr India, Ram Lakhan, Lamhe, Tezaab, Mashaal and even the most insignificant films in which he proved to be a powerful actor who could leave a positive impact even in an itsy-bitsy role which any other actor in his place would not even dare to accept. The growing up of Anil Kapoor was steady but he was growing in strength which made both some of the best filmmakers and his rivals gape in wonder. And with the delectable powerhouse of talent he threw open with films like Virasat, Loafer, Judaai and Pukar he proved that he needed very little proof. A time came when roles were specially written only for him. He made it a habit to take whatever he had accepted as a challenge to conquer.

The most difficult time for an actor with the fire in him had now arrived. He was prepared. He knew, the clever actor that he was, that he had no other choice. He took all the competition in his stride and today, seventeen years later, Anil can move mountains, boulders, storms and cyclones which come in his way. He stands steady like the Rock of Gibraltar, a better actor, a mature actor, an actor who thrives on challenging himself which is his greatest strength. The unanimous opinion about Anil today is that he is a dedicated, devoted and disciplined actor who is in absolutely no mood to go down under, whatever the circumstances. That’s what keeps him where he is, right on top, an actor who knows what to do with himself if he has to reach the goals he has marked for himself.

The competition among actors has entered another phase. A new breed of actors who know little or very little of what acting is all about have come in. They have this self created confidence that they can overthrow actors of Anil’s generation. They try and they keep trying and then Anil comes up once again with one half of a Taal and forces these very boys and a crowd of fans belonging to every section of life to take another look at him. Just three scenes and Anil carried away all the major awards. That’s what I call an actor who can raise a storm, do it even when there are people waiting for him to walk out. No, you couldn’t give this man away fifteen years ago. Yes, you cannot give him up for many more years to come.

What is the season in your life and career at this stage?
Believe me, it is the best season both ways. I’ve never felt so good in my entire career. I’ve now been recognised by the most hardened critics and my fans who have never deserted me even in the darkest phases in my career. I have only grown with the passing of time. It’s been more than fifteen years since I’ve been around and yet I feel I have just started a new season, a season when I am about to come up with seven or eight of my biggest films to go with my image, all lined up to show the world how an actor can change for the better if he has the will to overcome odds. And what’s filmmaking but a series of steps, every step on fire even before you can step on it. I would be a fool if I don’t take advantage of this season, the toughest season of my life and career.

What are the reasons for making you sound so cheerful, so optimistic. We have never seen this face of Anil Kapoor in a long, long time.
First of all, I must tell you that I am an optimist to the core. I don’t let anything or anyone come in my way. I just do the work I know to the best of my ability. I work very sincerely. I see that I don’t take any wrong steps that may harm my career. I’m on my guard all the time. I have changed with the changing times. I have never let failure bog me down or depress me. I take failure as a stepping stone. If I had surrendered to the failures that have come in my way I would have been finished by now. You tell me, isn’t it an achievement to overcome so many odds in the seventeen years that I have been around? It is my dedication to my career which has brought me so far and which will I am sure take me quite far because I deserve it, because I have worked very, very hard for it under all kinds of circumstances, circumstances which can form a book which can be called ‘The chilling challenging circumstances of an actor’. I have still so much more to give. I can feel the glowing, the burning, the anguish, the agony, and the ecstasy which help me rather than punish me as an actor. I’m not the kind of actor who will sit back and say I have achieved all that I have. I have also been trying all the time wherever I am to find out ways and means to work harder to build the actor in me into a monument not of stone or marble or ivory but of sweat tears and blood. I always believe that I have just started my career like I said earlier. I still believe there is so much to give for a genuine actor. There is so much to learn. I believe the day I feel I have made it, I have done my best will be the beginning of the end of my career. How can I give up all that I have made of myself? From Boney Kapoor’s production boy to an accepted actor I have come a long way and my strength also lies in always saying one more which means that I have still not given my best. I am a very hungry, very thirsty, very lusty actor. I strongly believe in that line which says yeh dil maange more. I don’t know about other dils but my dil I know will never stop asking for more and more. I’m doing my best to satisfy all my needs as an actor because I know the day I can live without the hunger, the thirst, the lust I will not be what I am.

What according to you have been your latest triumphs as an actor?
Frankly, they are still to come. Some of my best films and roles are in the formative stages and it will not be long before they take off. Of late, I have come up with my best in films like Pukar, Taal and even in a guest appearance in Biwi No.1. If you look at them, they are all very different roles. A very serious role in Pukar, the kind I have never played before, the kind of film in which I knew I had to put my whole life and I did. I was very thrilled with my role in Pukar and I must thank Rajkumar Santoshi for going out of his way to get the best out of me. Then there was Subhash Ghai’s Taal. It looked like a light role but if you ask me it was a very difficult role. I could have gone overboard. I could have got excited and ruined the role but I knew that the role was very crucial. And the appreciation for my hard work came with all the three major awards I won and all the other awards I won from the Lions Club of Chinchpokli to the Rotary Club of Chiplun, so what if it was for the best supporting actor. I don’t believe in things like best actor and best supporting actor. I believe in the roles I do being appreciated. My role in Taal was short but yet I will always consider it as a major landmark in my career. Thank God, I didn’t reject Taal because of the length of the role or because it was not the hero’s role (I come in only after the interval). And I who have won many best actor awards was thrilled to receive the best supporting actor award for a very prestigious film made by a great director like Subhash Ghai who has always vibed very well with me. I’ve done my best for him even if it was a flop film like Trimurti. Subhash Ghai is a source of inspiration. He can get the best out of machines, boulders and robots and add life to them. And Biwi No.1 I did just for the fun of it. I took the risk because I wanted to try something which I had not tried before. A role like this also satisfied the hunger, the thirst, the lust for acting in me. I loved the line I saw somewhere. It said, "This one has both length and strength". Yes, I’m an actor like that - with length and strength. I can go for anything but I will not fall for stupidity and roles that make no sense. I can play an Eeshwar and I can play what I’m playing in Biwi No.1. That’s the challenge of being an actor for all seasons.

You are not growing younger anymore. You cannot afford to play romantic roles with eighteen year old girls singing and dancing around trees What are your plans for the future? You cannot fool around after all these years and experiences. Critics and cinegoers alike are expecting great things from you. They think you are one of the best actors of your generation. They hate to see you going waste sometimes. What is Anil Kapoor going to do to save Anil Kapoor and fulfill the expectations of your admirers?
Yes, I am very much aware that I am not the sixteen-going on seventeen actor. I am not even the Mr Running around the trees with young girls - actor. I have lost them a long time ago. I’m happy that I have passed that phase. Now is the time for me to come up with the best of roles which will bring up a very different and dynamic Anil Kapoor. Now is the time to come up with distinguished roles which are very difficult to find. But my search never stops. I know I have to make great sacrifices if I have to make it like an actor even a little like Dilip Kumar. Eighty odd films in fifty two years! What a sacrifice. The man proved and positively proved that it was his job as an actor that mattered most to him. One bit role I did with him in Shakti. But my first major role with him was in Mashaal. I had the privilege of standing up to him and facing some of the most enlightening experiences as an actor. Just watching him taught me lessons which a hundred books on acting cannot. I cannot dare to grow into an actor like Dilip Kumar. That will be touching the sky. But I would certainly try to reach somewhere near him. I know it is talking big but unless you dream high or aim high you cannot do a thing here. I am not greedy to grow into a legend but I would certainly love to do some mind-blowing work which will be remembered for a long time.
But the films you are doing and the way you are running around doing them don’t show any signs.

Parkalam which in Tamil means wait and see. I have plans, ideas and ambitions. They will be put together at the right time. I am already on my way to be the Anil Kapoor I was destined to be.

Has the competition coming from the younger boys, the Khans, the Kumars, the Roshans and the Bachchans worrying you, giving you sleepless nights?
Believe me, competition has never disturbed me, never given me sleepless nights. I’m telling you in all honesty that competition is the one thing that has kept me going for so many years. If I was worried, depressed, disappointed, dejected and rejected by competition I would not be alive, wanted and loved till now. These new boys, some of whom are damn good, are no competition for me. If I would go on worrying about competition. I would become like them and forget the real Anil Kapoor who has given me so much soul satisfaction. Competition is for cowards to worry about. Competition is also healthy. It can save cowards if they have to save themselves. I am doing some very good films now. I’m also doing better films than I used to because I want to prepare the ground for the real Anil Kapoor to take off to reach the heights I want to and I promise I will work very hard to reach them even if I have to work till the last moment of my life.

They say you are the yellow journalists’ nightmare. You don’t give them a chance to write about your affairs, your wild ways, your controversies, your manipulations.

There is no other side to Anil Kapoor. There is no scope or hope in my life for affairs, controversies and manipulations. That’s why they call me a big bore and I don’t mind because my aim is to make it as a big actor. They also say that Anil Kapoor on the cover of a yellow mag doesn’t sell. How does that matter to me? It is their bad business.

What about Anil Kapoor the director now and in the future?
A big no. I don’t know the basics of direction and I don’t have the time too. About my future as a director you can ask the future. I don’t know what the future has in store for me.

PS: I have been a personal witness to the growth of Anil Kapoor the actor during the last seventeen years or so. I have known things about him but the one thing I really know is that this Kapoor is not going to end up as just another Kapoor. He is too good to end up like that. He is made for the big times and that’s for sure. Take it from me today.

Ali Peter John.