King Sasha!

It was around when he was about six or seven Shahid Kapoor recalls his father Pankaj Kapur took him out to New Delhirsquos popular food joint Nirularsquos for a meal Unbeknownst to what would hit them the two were suddenly surrounded by ldquoa hundred people whorsquod picked up gajar carrots and were charging at them on their restaurant tablemdashalmost like zombies going Hehehehellip Gajar khaiye gajar hehehehelliprdquoldquoPar mein bete ke saath pizza kha raha hoon But Irsquom having pizza with my sonrdquo Pankaj Kapur shot back But no avail The public was of course responding to Pankaj Kapurrsquos iconic role of Detective Karamchand and his love for gajar in the 1980s on DoordarshanFatherson had to eventually rush out of Nirularsquos Shahid told his dad who was visiting him from Bombay then to never take him out again ldquoBy virtue of distance the interaction between him and me was anyway limitedrdquoShahidrsquos parents had separateddivorced when he was quite young He was then growing up in Delhi with his mother Neelima Azeem and his maternal grandparents who were both journalists with the Russian publication SputnikSasha thatrsquos the ldquoghar ka naamrdquo his grandparents gave himmdashand that his tribe of fans selfnamed Shanatics call Shahid bymdashis also a common Russian name he points outIt was only when he turned 10 that Shahid also moved to Bombay to be with his mom a trained classicalKathak dancer who was looking at a career in actingShahid himself was one of the top dancers at Shiamak Davarrsquos dance academymdashmoving up from the back rows at dance performances to the front row and eventually becoming a trainer at the institute ldquowhich is how it works at Shiamakrsquos school you have to prove yourself every step of the wayrdquoIn fact if you notice closely you can find Shahid dancing in the group in Subhash Ghairsquos Taal 1999 even Yash Choprarsquos Dil Toh Paagal Hai 1997 On stage he was ecstatic to be ldquomoving right behind Aishwarya Rai Salman Khan at popular award showsrdquo By 16 Shahid says he was already earning enough to manage without pocket money from home ldquoeven help out with the household incomerdquoA picture from a trivia night we show Shahid is of him with actor Ayesha Takia Theyrsquore both such lovely children posing with coffee mugs to the TV screen Shahid and Ayesha were the OG ldquoIrsquom a Complan boy shersquos a Complan girlrdquoHe laughs ldquoAyesha was a really big child star at the time We had to wait for her to turn up on the set while I got my solo shots donerdquo But these were ldquooneoff appearances on screen because I was a cute kid and someone or the other saw and cast merdquo His mom was clear she didnrsquot want him to get fulltime with commercialadvertising work stillCut to 2003 Which is when I first met Shahid seated quietly at the reception area of the midday newspaper office in Lower Parel A publicist had called to check if I might be free to say hi to a young kid hersquod brought along I was a young recruitintern type at that office myselfHaving stepped out for a minute as a favour to the publicist you could see other people quizzically wondering who this boy in their midst was They had seen him somewhere just not sure whereldquoBack then before there was social media it used to take years for you to reach out to people Now it can happen in weeks and monthsrdquo Shahid recalls The exact date for that first meetup is not hard to figure Shahid says his debut film as lead the teenage romcom Ken Ghoshrsquos Ishq Vishk released on May 9 2003On that Friday hersquod excitedly gone over to Bombayrsquos Sterling cinema to watch himself on the big screen for the first time ldquoBetween noon and when the film finished while I had just been around doing nothing the peoplersquos perception of me had totally changed Barricades were put up I was too young at 23mdashwhich from an exposure point of view is very different from how 23yearolds are now And I thought oh wow is this what stardom isrdquoThat lsquomedia roundrsquo mustrsquove taken place a couple of days after Which is almost exactly 20 years since that wersquore recording the episode of Sit with Hitlist at the midday office again this time in Bandra EastOnly that Shahid is full of confident banter thatrsquos hard to reproduce in textmdashhersquos a major Bollywood star with over 50 releases to his credit Having been through a ldquoturbulent journey of ups and downsrdquo and indeed a cracker eclectic careermdashover those two decadesStarting out as the lsquochocolate boyrsquo romantic lead Ishq Vishk to Jab We Met graduating to a more actionmasala hero Bloody Daddy his last release and even layered parts whether on the big screen Kaminey to Kabir Singh or OTT platformsseries FarziShahid Kapoorrsquos blockbuster movies Jab We Met 2007 and Vivaah 2006Even at the beginning of his stint young Shahid never introduced himself as son of the great Pankaj Kapur We might have seen him differently It was a conscious selfrespecting call he had takenmdashof making it on his ownFor four years Shahid remembers between age 18 and 22 hersquod simply been incessantly screentesting for parts ldquoI like the word lsquostrugglerrsquo they use only for aspiring actors Itrsquos true Itrsquos a life full of rejections Four years means about 1200 daysmdashand I would have easily given about 200 auditionsrdquoNone of those films apparently made anybodyrsquos career so hersquos glad for it One of which Shahid says he rejected himselfmdashN Chandrarsquos Style 2001 because he was clear even at that age that he would debut only as the sololeadItrsquos another matter he says that once Ishq Vishk did well commerciallymdashhe was considered too young for producers to cast opposite existing established female leads ldquoTheyrsquod rattle out names of threefour popular female stars and say lsquoYoursquoll look like a kid with them Wherersquos your lsquomardaangirsquo manliness There was no work for my agebracket and for the way I lookedrdquoAlso he submits there was a perception in Bollywood at the time that a star was born at best only once every half a decade ldquoAnd Hrithik Roshan had already become huge with Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai in 2000 Vivek Oberoi quickly followed with Company in 2002 So apparently by law of averages I didnrsquot stand a chancerdquoOf course all these rules are assumptive They fail in the face of public choice which is impossible to predict Another such rule I point out to Shahid is how when it comes to a loyal female followingmdashthe credibility built from a particular film cements it so much for a male lead sometimes it can easily lead last them a lifetimeTake Ryan Gosling for instance Take The Notebook 2004 out of his filmography And he wouldnrsquot garner half the female fans thatrsquos stuck around him since Likewise with Shah Rukh Khan and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge 1995 The connect is irreversible The persona sustainsI wonder if itrsquos the same relationship with the female demographic that Shahid attained with Imtiaz Alirsquos Jab We Met 2007 first He says ldquoI know Jab We Met gets a lot of credit as it should But letrsquos not forget Vivaah 2006 It was a smallbudget filmmdashby the legendary producers Barjatyasrsquo standardsldquoTheir more expensive film with modern sensibilities Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon had just failed Sooraj Barjatya and his father Raj Kumar Barjatya were planning to do a movie with new actors to test their original traditional lower middleclass audiencessensitivities Vivaah is the last Indian movie to do a lsquosilver jubileersquo 25week run in theatresrdquo Shahid claimsAudiences like me of course remember him more for Vishal Bhardwajrsquos Kaminey 2009mdashdecidedly from the dark side of the moon which was as diametrically a Uturn for his onscreen imageWe wonder how different could it be to be on a Barjatya set over Bhardwajrsquos ldquoChalk and cheese Vishal doesnrsquot like anything sweet Hersquod keep asking me to go lsquokaminarsquo Sooraj would want me to throw way all city slicker influences and be sweet Itrsquos schizophrenic to be on both setsrdquoAs for Imtiaz Ali Shahid recalls ldquoHe was a new director when he came to me The first thing that struck me was how goodlooking he was himself lost in his dreamy thoughtsldquoThen the fact that he narrated out of a bound script which wasnrsquot common Back then you heard a 30 to 40minute narration that the director would then develop if you said yes to itldquoThe script had lsquoGeetrsquo written on it I asked him lsquoWhat does this meanrsquo He said thatrsquos the heroinersquos name I told him lsquoThe next time you go to a heromdashdonrsquot go with a script with the heroinersquos name on itrsquoThe next time he came to me with the same script he had lsquoThe Trainrsquo written on itrdquo Shahid laughsEventually they settled on Jab We Met because big daddy Pankaj Kapur came up with the title over dinner ldquoI was telling him about how I want an EnglishHindi mixed title and what the story was aboutHe said call it Jab We Metrdquo Which was one of the titles entered into a public poll held by a newspaper ldquoThe other was Bhatinda Express The third one I donrsquot recall People picked Jab We MetrdquoPriyanka Chopra Jonas and Shahid Kapoor in Vishal Bhardwajrsquos Kaminey 2009As for his female followingmdashevidenced from the fact that this conversation itself is being recorded with an allwomen audiencemdashShahid attributes much to his more recent by far the biggest hit of his career Sandeep Reddy Vangarsquos Kabir Singh 2019 as wellThe film was a scenebyscene remake of Arjun Reddy in Telugu by the same director So Shahid knew exactly what he was walking intomdashthe part of a drugaddled abusive boyfriend that remains his most controversial yet So much so that itrsquos been four years and he feels the need to defend it stillHe says ldquoThere were so many people refusing to accept that people are liking the film I was like lsquoArey bhai logon ko acchi lag rahi hai tum log baithe ho apni high chair meinmdashsuggesting how dare you like the film Well accept itrdquoHersquos also willing to engage on the criticism Which is perhaps not that people were refusing to acknowledge the commercial numbersfootfalls But that the film was about the sort of character who may exist in real life surely But who was instead being lauded as a hero of sorts That was the issue that some people may have had with arguably a misogynist subjectShahid disagrees ldquoWell Kabir slaps the girl Kiara Advani She slaps him back But when he slaps her it is so shocking that it stays with you and it disturbs you right Everything that happens to him after in his life is a downward spiral Until the last moment when somehow the girl agrees to be with him He is a complete mess A very cinematic character It is like Taxi Driver or ScarfacerdquoThe deranged Travis Bickle Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver ultimately kills himself though ldquoKabir Singh is actually about how everyone should get a second chance In love who hasnrsquot messed up And if you see it right from the promomdashat no point is it being said that he is a great guyldquoIrsquom nothing like him But as an actor itrsquos my job to play different characters You donrsquot have to like him You should like my performance Hersquos not the hero Hersquos the protagonistrdquoWhich can be said of Shahidrsquos equally messed up Punjabi hiphop star Tommy Singh from Abhishek Chaubeyrsquos Udta Punjab 2016 What did he find in common between both the charactersldquoNothing besides that they are both Singhsrdquo Shahid laughs ldquoThere is a scene in Udta Punjab where Tommy says that hersquos never done anything for anyone else And that he must for Alia Bhattrsquos character Hersquos been completely selfcentred Which is how hersquos different from Kabir who gives it all for his love And shersquos nice enough to have him back Love stories must end with a note of hoperdquoThe other thing common between Tommy and Kabir is of course that they are both substance abusers isnrsquot it ldquoYesrdquo Played by an actor whorsquos a sworn vegan and teetotaler Itrsquos something you donrsquot associate with moviestars still ldquoYou can call me boring I donrsquot mindrdquo Shahid smilesThe other thing unusual for a movie star is getting into an arranged marriage which is what Shahid made as a lifedecision when he married young Mira Rajput in 2015ldquoWell if yoursquod asked me then Irsquod have said arranged marriages donrsquot make sense to me either But it happened organicallyrdquo He says they met through family ldquoWe were part of the same spiritual group that I was obviously aware of She was all of 20 years old I was 34 I was a little embarrassed about thatldquoBut I was really looking for someone who could understand both aspects of my lifemdashthe spiritual side and that Irsquom an actor a public figure She was genuinely interested in figuring me out as a personAnd you can tell when these things are real She was not affected by my professionrdquoThe first time they got on the phone Shahid remembers they spoke for seven hours straight He knew hersquod found the one He feels the same way about her family that he treats as his own ldquoTheyrsquore very classy and sorted peoplerdquoDuring the two years of the pandemic Shahid says he stayed over with his inlawsrsquo throughout in a place called Dera in Punjab ldquoWe had reached there just three days before the lockdown got announcedrdquoA token of our appreciation to Shahid KapoorA few years back Shahid had recounted to us a trigger point on this aspect of his life Hersquod been single for a while He was returning home alone having had won the Filmfare Award for Vishal Bhardwajrsquos Haider 2014That big night he slept with his statuette Acknowledging a thing amiss that he must do something about ldquoI felt the need for a companion But even then I didnrsquot know Irsquod find a perfect lifepartner Itrsquos toughrdquoUp until then you could describe Shahid as lsquoseriously monogamousrsquo ldquoI had always been that guy in my 20smdashin long settled relationshipsrdquo The other aspect that early success in showbiz thankfully affords the young is a rich rockstar life when yoursquore merely in the 20s Sports stars are similarly privileged Irsquom sure that mustrsquove been a legit high before he decided to proverbially settle downldquoItrsquos a stupid highrdquo Shahid explains ldquoSo Irsquod go and buy myself a fancy sports car and then I would feel like lsquoWhy did I do this Now I am broke againrsquo Yoursquore a little stupid in your 20smdashmaking stupid choices and then you blame other things When I look back Irsquom like lsquoOkay I should have made better choices I would have been more comfortable yarrsquordquoWhich is to say ldquoI also didnrsquot have time for anythingmdashtoo busy holding on to my position professionally working on the set 240 days of the year let alone promoting my films thereafterrdquoHow about dating the hottest women in Bollywood thoughmdashsurely thatrsquos a great perk of being a star into only lifersquos second decade when most others are busy moving up from the low rankstation attempting a halfdecent livingShahid isnrsquot particularly impressednostalgic by that reminiscence ldquoSee at the end of the day you are dating goodlooking women But you are also considered desirable and goodlooking rightldquoSo it is not something that you are getting three levels above your own league I mean there were enough women interested in me as well rightrdquo Spoken truly with that feisty swag of a 20something Looks apart going by talent from pedigree alonemdashas a star performer doubtlessly Shahid has picked up his dancing skills from the mother and acting prowess from the father Hersquos quick to point out hereldquoI was more happy about getting my hair from my mom and acting chops from dad I was like lsquoDad I donrsquot want your hairrsquoldquoHe was semibald at 30 and he used to keep messing with me saying lsquoIrsquom an actor I can play all kinds of characters Abhi toh tu hero ban gaya hai agar tere baal udd gaye toh tujhe kaam hi nahi milega Yoursquove become a star Now if you lose your hair yoursquoll get no workrsquo He used to mess with me duderdquoMuch as the father and son couldnrsquot have had a more separate career graph from the looks of it Shahid did indeed imbibe the ambition of gaining respect as an actor from Pankaj Kapur Itrsquos part of his natural trainingldquoIrsquod seen all my fatherrsquos film growing upmdashwhether that be Rui Ka Bojh 1997 or Ek Doctor Ki Maut 1990 Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro 1983 is of course one of my favourite films everrdquoThe two collaborated most ambitiously as actordirector in fact Wherein Pankaj Kapur debuted as filmmaker with Mausam 2011 starring Shahid in the lead Theyrsquod produced the film as wellmdashcharting a story as wide in scale as The Gone with the Wind no lessThis was around the time Shahid says that hersquod himself gone through a makeover in terms of how hersquod go about his career goalsldquoI was done with walking into a set being given dialogues to perform right there and carrying on I wanted to approach films with a sense of commitment and had chosen to work in one project a yearrdquo Which is the time and energy he spent on Mausam along with his father who spent over year and half on itldquoBut we realised thatrsquos not how everyone else works And so while the film was in production others had moved on We were finding it hard to match dates with castcrew Even when I saw the filmrsquos final cut I knew this was not going to land well It wasnrsquot the film that my father had envisionedrdquo Mausam bombed at the boxoffice causing a career setback for Shahid to start withOne of the things it appears that Shahid regrets about stardom is the sort of time it takes to finally get a hang of the system ldquoBy the time you know exactly whatrsquos going on yoursquove already lost eight to 10 years When you come from a mainstream film family on the other hand yoursquove experienced much up close and personal alreadyrdquo Thatrsquos the advantage he says his halfbrother young Ishaan Khatter hasHaving grown up under the wings of Shahid ldquoHersquos watched me and my choices closely and always had an opinion on it For instance he wouldnrsquot like me in a Dil Bole Hadippa but totally love me in Kaminey As an elder brother you sort of become the guy riding the motorcycle with him on the back seatrdquoHaving seen all his films it would be fair to suggest some of Shahidrsquos early scriptsense could be befuddling at best For instance I point out what could have made him sign up for a pic like Paathshala 2010 that I remember wondering the same even while watching it ldquoThat was a friend who asked me to give him seven days of my life and he badly needed itrdquo All choices have a reasonConsider Prabhu Devarsquos Rhellip Rajkumar 2013 and Rajkumar Santoshirsquos Phata Poster Nikhla Hero 2013 that Shahid hit the screens with soon after Mausam hadnrsquot worked theatricallyldquoThat was me seeking commercial success If yoursquore not successful you actually have no power to make any choices So you just have to get successful first Itrsquos simple Rhellip Rajkumar in fact did well And Phata Poster did notrdquoFrom a film industry POV he looks at movies very differently Shahid concedes Namely you need films of all palette to march on as an industry ldquoWhat I donrsquot get is people who can only make dosas saying that those who eat burgers are no good Thatrsquos not how it works I stay away from such peoplerdquoAnd itrsquos not that commercial success or massive footfalls is the only criterion surely Soon after the release of Sanjay Leela Bhansalirsquos blockbuster Padmaavat 2018 there were news reports suggesting Shahid wasnrsquot pleased with his own presence in the pic along with Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh who evidently stole the show Was there any merit to these assertionsHe candidly admits ldquoItrsquos true Everyone was lovely in that film And I donrsquot want to get into details But I kept thinking lsquoWhy did I do this filmrsquo I had no perspective And I donrsquot want to blame anybodyrdquoWhich also relates to insecurities that come naturally with an actorrsquos mercurial job To take another example of published reports there was one about how Shahid didnrsquot get along with costar Kangana Ranaut during the making of Vishal Bhardwajrsquos Rangoon 2017 TrueldquoNot true I got along fine with Kangana Shersquos a fine actorrdquo Long pause Okay that is a long pause ldquoWhat do I say Yoursquore not asking me anything else Yoursquore talking about insecurities looking in from the outside into an actorrsquos life But it may not be those insecurities There are so many things that can be there if first of all there is a problemrdquoWhich is fair And being a star as against a professional actor alone inevitably involves media scrutinymdashas part of the job even if an occupational hazard on occasion Surely over two decades of being right at the centre of Bombay showbiz has come with its own potholesThe one story I remember concerning Shahid and in fact middaymdashshortly after we met first at the newspaperrsquos office receptionmdashwere a series of paparazzi pictures that the tabloid had published in 2004 starring Shahid and his girlfriend then taken at a Juhu nightclub RainThose pictures were clicked by a bunch of kids randomly hanging around in the nightclub with a digital camera There were no featurephones with cameras at the timeThose juvenile delinquents arrived at the midday office demanding Rs 500 for the set of blurry but innocuous imagesvideo of Shahid kissing in love evidently Unmindful of possible minders aroundI wonder what that did to Shahid once those pictures appeared in what became a big salacious tabloid story Which was hardly a big deal though if you look at it objectively rather than voyeuristicallyldquoOf course it was a big deal Letrsquos be honestmdashputting out pictures like that would get you a lot of eyeballs Thatrsquos the honest truth of it Itrsquos okay You know we all take it with a pinch of salt But what was your question againrdquoThe question was what did he feel about it when that happened then I donrsquot think hersquos spoken about it in all these yearsldquoOh I was destroyed at the time I was just 24 years old a kid I felt my privacy had been invaded and I could do nothing to protect it I was a mess At that age especiallymdashbecause you donrsquot even know your own feelings You are figuring out how to be with a girl you are dating And in the middle of all that this happenshelliprdquoWhatrsquos changed with stardom and the media landscape since of course is that practically everyone is with a smart phone making videos pictures selfies in public Shahid 42 reasons ldquoNow you are aware that a paparazzi snap like that is 100 percent going to happen At that time we were caught off guard by itldquoSo that is like an informed devil as opposed to an uninformeddevil scenario then You at least know lsquoYeh toh hone wala hi hai Also ab toh meri shaadi ho gayi hai bacche ho gaye hain Now Irsquom married with kids Nobody is interested in those things about me They have other 24yearolds to focus onrdquoWatch the full interview here