Tuesday, Mar 28, 2017

The phrase ‘what you see is what you’ get applies to Rishi Kapoor, the prolific actor and the son of matinee idol, Raj Kapoor.

Our telephone interview, prior to his show in Dubai called Khullam Khulla! With Rishi Kapoor on March 31 at the Dubai World Trade Centre, was a mixed bag. It reminded this journalist of a turbulent job interview in which the panel of interviewers played good cop-bad cop, or that awkward first date where you couldn’t decide if the meeting was going well or not.

A word of advice: if you happen to interact with the actor this Friday: do not utter the word Bollywood. He will go ballistic.

“Why do you call it Bollwood? Why don’t you call it the Indian film industry? I hate our film industry being called Bollywood… I don’t like it. Period. It’s my personal choice,” said Kapoor impatiently.

The 64-year-old claims he feels slighted and “low” when his friends from the West assume that Bollywood is a poor imitation of their reality and entertainment world known as Hollywood.

“Let’s come up with something original, shall we?”

Not faking it is a popular sentiment with him as he promises to act out his own autobiography this weekend. His book, Khullam Khulla! Uncensored, that chronicled his colourful life was released this January and has been getting good reviews for its candid approach.

“Faking it has never been my style. I am not a stylised actor and I have been spontaneous all my life. I like to keep things natural. I know acting is about faking it, but I fake it only to make you believe in something. As Mr B.R. Chopra rightly said, ‘acting is all about putting an effort to show effortlessness’,” said Kapoor.

Born into a world of privilege, Kapoor made his acting debut as an adult in 1973 with the blockbuster romance Bobby and instantly became a star. But he couldn’t sustain that frenzy for long and his career has seen both highs and lows with hits such as Chandini and Bol Radha Bol and disasters like Raja and Barood.

“My entire journey and my life — from the phase of two till today and the experiences that I have encountered, will be acted out. I am enacting my autobiography on stage and there are many anecdotes to be told,” said Kapoor. But prodding him about the topics he will cover is as painful as extracting tooth. He’s determined to keeps his cards close to his chest.

“But don’t take the uncensored word in the title so seriously. It’s just a caption in my book… Expect a candid talk about what I have gone through in my life.” So was it easy to come clean? He’s the first person from his acting clan to write his own book.

“It was very easy to do so… I have been as open, forthright and candid as I can be. That was my intention anyway.” His book touches upon his famous father Raj Kapoor, also called the showman of Indian cinema, his childhood that was punctuated by his father’s affair with his leading lady and his turn as a father to actor Ranbir Kapoor and husband to his wife Neetu Singh.

Ask him about how he felt revealing intimate facets of his father’s life, he’s quick to fire away: “The whole world knows about it and it’s not like I am revealing something new.”

“You are talking as if nobody knows about it… I don’t go by any rule book. I set my own rules and not what somebody else does. But you have to see what perspective it was said in and the light that it has been said in the book,” said Kapoor. Fair enough.

While he isn’t willing to give the farm away when it comes to his show in Dubai, there are a few references to the city too in his book.

He also talked about meeting Dawood Ebrahim, one of India’s most wanted men.

“He was a fan of mine and he loved me as an actor. His man saw me at the airport and said that he [Ebrahim] loved me as an actor and wanted to meet me. At that point, he was a fugitive on the run and he hadn’t done the Bombay [terror attacks]… There’s nothing wrong with it. There are so many people who met with him but shy away from speaking about it. I am bold and honest enough to admit that I had a great meeting with him and that I met him for four hours,” said Kapoor. During their tete-a-tete, the alleged gangster even expressed his happiness about Kapoor’s character being called Dawood in one of his films.

“He was so happy that my name in the film Tawaif was Dawood and Tawaif was a film about the emancipation of women and that my character fought for women who were pushed into the flesh trade,” said Kapoor.

In the 1990s, it’s believed that the ties between the Hindi film industry and the organised crime mafia was tight with several films being produced by kingpins.

While Kapoor writes the episode off as a charming anecdote, many actors clam up when asked about it. But Kapoor, who has more the 1.6 million followers on Twitter, is cut from a different cloth.

His life is like an open book and he isn’t ashamed of any chapter in it.

“What is there in the book that’s anything shocking? I have never said anything that is derogatory and I am not ashamed of anything. I have not hidden anything either… I have never had affairs to talk about or hide about,” said Kapoor, adding that he has made mistakes like any other human being.

Another word, other than Bollywood, that gets his goat is the word ‘nepotism’ — a practice that was recently debated by actress Kangana Ranaut. She remarked that the Hindi film industry is partial to the children of actors and that merit is often overlooked.

“I will start my show with that and talk openly about it… I am the oldest star kid working in cinema right now. But tell me, am I still getting work because of my father? Why do you blame star kids? Certain star kids make it and certain star kids didn’t. You need to have something in you to make it. It’s the public that makes you a star… I will clear the basic perception that people have about star kids in my show in Dubai,” he said.

The details

Khullam Khulla! With Rishi Kapoor will be at Hall 1, Dubai World Trade Centre on March 31. Doors open at 7.30pm and show begins 9.30pm. Tickets start from Dh125.

KAPOOR ON...

The actor, who is known for his caustic brand of humour, has an interesting take on everything. Here’s what he said about:

Advice to the young today?

“Everybody makes their own journey and everybody makes their own life. I am nobody to comment on anybody. I never do that even to my son. My son never looks me up for any kind of advice either. Today the kids are more wiser than how we were at that age. There is so much information... There is access to internet and world cinema. When my grandfather started with cinema, it was on a trial and error basis.”

His struggle to remain relevant

“You have to be accepted by today’s audiences and you can only last if they accept you. My presence here is a validation of their acceptance. The youth of today is validating me. You have to actually be with the times... I am not an outdated actor. I try to keep pace with today’s times so that audiences today can relate and identify with me. I want to identify with the roles I play too and enjoy them.”

By Manjusha Radhakrishnan, Senior Reporter

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