Exclusive: Aditya Roy Kapur on acting, Hollywood and Mumbai rains

Its been a while since the Bollywoodloving urban women of India have been this close to unison on a common object of desire Ever since The Night Manager hit our mobile screens Aditya Roy Kapur has been ldquothe onerdquoChiselled bodymdashflaunted amply in shirtless scenes ambling on the beachmdasha shy yet enticing smile decent acting chops and finally a mega hit He seems to have it all for the moment And in an endless Instagram frenzy of curated wedding pictures here is a leading man who is single making him ideal fodder for fantasyThe day we meet Kapur itrsquos pouring and the IMD has instructed citizens to stay at home He is looking out of the window of his publicistrsquos Bandra office gleefully We remind him that the weather must be very different in Spain where he was on vacation last week ldquoYes there was a lot of sun I was having FOMOmdashI didnrsquot want to miss the rain I love thisrdquoKapur poses for photographs while we quote from a celebrity filmy magazine interview that claimed that he was entirely unaware of the female attention ldquoNo no I am awarerdquo he clarifies A young woman friend wants him to record a video saying her name thatrsquos it We relay the request faithfully He breaks into that bashful smile ldquoJust keep saying names thatrsquos allrdquoHe wonrsquot talk relationships we are told not old or new Only work But there is enough to talk aboutHe is particular about how he appears in pictures how his hair sits and refuses a plate of carbheavy bhutta thatrsquos offered to him In the next moment he gives in ldquoItrsquos okay I trust yourdquo he tells the midday photographerItrsquos not easy to take a poor picture of Kapur He sits across from us his tall relaxed frame complimenting his amiable manner it makes it easy to talk to him Hersquos not quite the star more like the hot relatable boy next doorKapur admits that he is in a good place ldquoLife is good The Night Manager did well I am happy and looking forward to whatrsquos coming up I love the monsoonsmdashnot missing the sun at allrdquo he repeatsThat the web series was an adaptation of the British original starring Tom Hiddleston hasnrsquot taken away from his performance which is attracting applause The only way to attack this role would then be to do it in your own way ldquoYou have to be convinced of the rolemdashas an actor you have to find your way into the part It canrsquot come from a place of imitation I was inspired by the original performances but what helped was that the makers did a great job with the adaptionrdquo We also remind him that he is yet again playing a character who suffers on the inside but holds a stoic exterior much like damaged SoorajArjun from Gumraah 2023 the vengeful Advait in Malang 2019 melancholic Rahul in Ashiqui 2 2013 or even the kooky but disgruntled Avinash in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani 2013 ldquoThere has been a lot of sufferingrdquo he laughs and agreesAre you like that in real lifeHe gives us the ldquohmmm you got merdquo smile and says ldquoI guess all of us are like that nordquo We say no we are not And he laughs again ldquoHonestly I donrsquot know if I have all that perspective on myself But this character had so much to unearthmdashthere was a lot about his past There was a lot for me to draw fromrdquoItrsquos been 10 years since Kapurrsquos first big film Aashiqui 2 a musical love story starring Shraddha Kapoor In 2009 he had starred in a bit role in London Dreams The last decade has taught him that permanence is transient ldquoItrsquos a clicheacute but clicheacutes are true You donrsquot need to get too low or too high Stay levelrdquo When a film doesnrsquot work he retreats and heals in a refuge ldquoYou work so hard for so long so itrsquos jarring when it doesnrsquot work I need a few days to recoup and then I go back into societyrdquo Introvert shall we call him ldquoMaybe an ambivertrdquo he saysHe didnrsquot ask for this though As a student at St Xavierrsquos College Kapur wanted to be a cricketer ldquoLike the rest of Indiardquo he quips He also wanted to be a musician and was the first vocalist of indie band Something Relevant Then he went on to become a veejay on Channel V where people appreciated his comic timing ldquoAt Channel V they laughed at me They would say lsquoyeh actor kabhi nahin ban saktarsquordquoAnd here we are sitting across one of the most desirable acting talents of Hindi cinema ldquoI am flattered It is nicerdquo he smiles ldquobut I donrsquot dwell on it I donrsquot keep it front and centre of my mind I say ya ya I donrsquot want it to become too much a part of how I perceive myself or attach too much value to it Because it can go away very quicklyrdquo In the end for him how he looks is part and parcel of the work he does ldquoItrsquos the quality of work that decides longevity or what you will do nextrdquoAsk him how he works on his craft and Kapur says that itrsquos just about observing people and gathering varied experiences For now he just tries to work on every role with as much focus as possible ldquoI tell myself I can do this better canrsquot I I am never satisfied Some directors say lsquoYaar tu khush nahin hota hairsquordquoWhat he does want to do is try and play a negative characterDo we see him as a villain Maybe ldquoYa na It could be goodrdquo he thinks aloudWe talk about Hollywoodrsquos man of the moment Ryan Gosling who said recently that when he returned from a fouryear break to acting he realised that his work wasnrsquot therapy it was just a job ldquoThatrsquos the kind of clarity having a child gives you perhapsrdquo Kapur muses ldquoI have always had other interests I stumbled into actingmdashI didnrsquot work towards this Every role is therapeutic because I get to escape and be someone else But itrsquos not everythingrdquoWe are getting ready to say goodbye He asks ldquoSo you headed back to workrdquo A celebrity who is not selfinvolved We seem now to get the hype around this man Before we leave we ask will young Aditya be happy with where older Aditya ended up ldquoHe would have never seen this coming Acting in Hindi movies was not what I had thought of I was a Hollywood action movie fan But I have found something I actually love doing I am happy I am doing thisrdquoSo are we