I made the right choices: Anil Kapoor
GARAVI Gujarat caught up with Indian movie icon Anil Kapoor to speak about his second web series after 24, villainous role, unpredictability, audience connection, importance of owning an adaptation, and why this is perhaps the most exciting phase of his career.
Is this the most exciting phase of your career?
I think so! I’ve been very, very fortunate to have been working with some really fine filmmakers, producers, actors and on great projects like The Night Manager. So, it is definitely the most exciting phase of my career.
What’s the secret behind you being so unstoppable?
I think it’s me! Thank you so much for calling me unstoppable. I’ve just been fortunate and blessed to be surrounded by good technicians, directors, writers, and actors. All of them great! I made the right choices, worked hard, and given the best to my capacity. I think those are the reasons. I would say that’s my secret, if you call it that.
How are you selecting your projects?
That has always been the case from the time I started, you know. In the early stages of my career, if I would do an action film, I would come out with something completely opposite next. If I did a comedy, I would do something romantic and vice versa. I think I make choices for myself, keeping what the audience expects out of actors.
Tell us more about that ability to read the audience?
I have been with audiences, in theatres and seen the reactions of cinema goers. When an actor does the same thing again, and again, they can stagnate, and audiences get a little bored. So, I think it’s better to keep being unpredictable with your choices. And that’s what I’ve done with The Night Manager. It is a choice I made, which is out of my safe zone. I don’t think anything could have been more unpredictable for the audience than to see me playing the worst man in the world.
What specifically made you want to be part of
The Night Manager?
It is a great book written by the great John le Carré. The book and show adaptation were both absolutely terrific. When the Indian adaptation came to me, it was equally good, and to a certain extent better, in some scenes and certain portions of the show, which I felt were extremely well adapted. Some fresh twists have been added, which for me became very
exciting.
Tell us more about your role?
I play an extremely evil person. The worst man in the world. But there is a charming side to him, and somewhere he’s quite unpredictable. He can see constantly what is going on – sometimes he trusts people and other times he knows there are moles, and those trying to betray him. He somehow knows that his end is coming close, for whatever he has done in the past. But he just wants to get into it and enjoy this game, and find ways to make his life exciting until the very end.
We are used to seeing you as the hero, but here you are playing the opposite with this villain...
I had to be evil and charming, together, which is not that easy. For me, with my body of work and the kind of image I have had most of my career, including 24, I’ve played the good guy, who is with the law and morally correct. This is completely opposite to what I’ve done in all my other films and the characters I have played.
You enjoyed doing a web series for the second time...
I’ve done a lot of mainstream commercial cinema, and yes people have mostly seen me in films. After 24, this is my second outing in something like this, but Shailendra Rungta is totally different to my Jack Bauer-inspired 24 character and I enjoyed that challenge. I went from playing a good guy, to the worst man in the world, who is chilling, but also a family man. Charming, but definitely doing things which he should not. So, I felt I had to do something like this show, which has come to me at the right time after 24.
Your favorite moment in the show?
I enjoyed the cat and mouse scenes. These are my favorite moments in The Night Manager. Off set, it is all the places, cities, and countries I visited during the making of this show, like meeting new people in Sri Lanka and having the local cuisine, which was wonderful. We travelled to Jaisalmer and had fantastic Rajasthani food. In Shimla, we shot in the Wildflower Hall, which is one of the most beautiful hotels in the world. I just loved shooting there. All the locations that you see in The Night Manager are ones we have never ever seen in any of the shows, films, or TV.