‘I always aim to please my directors’

My film choic es and the people I work with have kept me relevant to every generation,” Anil Kapoor says. Even after four decades of being an actor, his hunt for novelty hasn’t ended. The 63year-old actor believes that it’s important to keep up with time and the ever-changing audience. “The time has come to experiment with different characters. Whether a character is interesting or not, depends on the writing,” he says.

Stressing on the importance of larger-than-life films bearing an element of realism in them, he says, “If the writer and the director aren’t good, characters tend to become like caricatures and clichéd. But if you have a good team of collaborators, writers and directors coming together and a good actor to translate their vision on celluloid, you can make even commercial films relatable and believable.”

Looking back at the equations that he formed with his peers back in the day, he nostalgically says, “I do pause and look back at the early phase of my career. I don’t try to recreate those days but I do miss working with people who are no more. I miss Amrish Puri, Bapu saab (late director), Sridevi, Anand Bakshi (late lyricist) and Laxmikant (Berde; late actor). I miss the way we used to work together. There are so many directors who I never got the chance of collaborating with again. But everybody moves on and life goes on (smiles).”

Ask him about what remains his biggest challenge to date and the Dil Dhadakne Do (2015) actor explains, “The challenge is to make yourself look believable in any character that you portray and adapting yourself to the working styles of your directors and co-actors. I’ve always been a director’s actor and so, I always aim to please them. The fear of whether I’ll be able to deliver according to the demands of the writers and the directors, will always be there. As a result, I work extra hard.”

Pondering on the legacy that he has created, Kapoor shares, “It’s just the beginning for my children – Sonam (K Ahuja), Rhea (Kapoor) and Harsh (Varrdhan Kapoor). They’ve just started working. And I’m confident that they are going to do even better work in the future.”