‘WHEN I STARTED OUT, I FOUND CHARACTERS UNRELATABLE’

Over the last Kunal Kapoor admits that 15 years, content has changed drastically

He has been in the Hindi film industry for 17 years and done 15-odd films, which is not too many, surprisingly. But, actor Kunal Kapoor insists it was a well-thought-of decision.

The 43-year-old, who made his debut with Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities (2004) says, “When I started off, two things happened. One, when you are successful, everybody wants to box you and cast you in similar roles, which was something I did not want to do. Secondly, the content in the industry has changed a lot in the last 15 years. When I was starting out, I found the characters very unrelatable.”

He goes on to say that roles back then were divided into plain good and bad. “Hero was a hero, villain was a villain; there was nothing in between. Every film made was about aspirational NRI characters wearing a particular kind of clothes, everything was shot outside India. Those were characters I didn’t get, I was looking for ones that were more relatable and flawed. What’s happened in the last few years is that more of these characters are being written,” says Kapoor, crediting content creators for writing them and audiences for accepting them.

Recently, he found such a role in the web show The Empire, in which he played Mughal Emperor Babur. And, he has been receiving praise for it. “The way he was written, he was very flawed, not someone strong. He was

Back then, hero was a hero, and villain was a villain. There was nothing in between.

weak and vulnerable, too. If a character like this would have been written 15 years back, it would’ve been different. That, to me, was something I was looking for. The response has

KUNAL KAPOOR,

been overwhelming. We expected it to get a good response, but this has really surprised us,” he concludes.

PHOTO: SUBI SAMUEL/HT Actor