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Monday January 22, 03:25 PM An interview with Anil
Kapoor
By IndiaFM News Bureau
 Tell us how did Salam-e-Ishq happen to you?
Like the way every film happens, there is a director,
there is a script, there is a producer, they
approached me and I liked the film and the role and I
accepted it.
What does Salam-e-Ishq mean to you?
It means to me like any other film, it is a good film,
it is a film with a lot of skill and unless the film
is good, I do not do it, so when I do the film that
means it has to be special.
Tell us something about the track?
It is a kind of film where individual tracks do not
matter, so ultimately the entire result, when you see
the whole film in totality is what makes the film
exciting. It is a huge star cast and the best thing
about this film is that inspite of having such a huge
star cast, everybody got along very well. Everybody
has good things to speak about and say about each
other. So there is a positive kind of a vibration
where this film is concerned. We had a lot of
interaction while making the film but still I feel
that everybody looks happy doing the film. It is very
rare, that the film has so many people and still
everybody seems to be very positive about this film.
Tell us little bit about your character?
I feel it would be better if you see the film and see
what my character is about.
There are several other stories also, are they all
parallel to each other?
I feel that the exciting part of the film is that you
go and see the film and let the audience be curious
and intrigue about the whole thing. How it is done and
why everybody is so pleased and why everybody is so
positive about this film inspite of being such a huge
star cast. Let everything related to the film be a
mystery and let the audience go and see the film and
after seeing the film, let them decide about my
character in the film.
How is Nikhil as a director?
I was interacting with him before the Salam-E-Ishq was
offered to me because Boney Kapoor has signed him for
a film which he was supposed to do for us. I had not
really worked with him on the sets but otherwise
meeting and interacting with him, I knew him.
Obviously, psychologically, it makes a difference,
when you have a very big success behind you and you
speak very well when you meet and all. You have very
positive impression because success is a very strange
kind of effect on people. But me being in films for so
many years and interacting with so many good,
successful, intelligent film makers, there is a little
judgment, which I have about people and about films
and directors. But whenever I met him, I got a feeling
that he is going to make a fabulous film, a super
film; I have that intuition, and that instinct. I
always told him just get into it, just start working,
because he was a slightly nervous as he has just
branched out from Karan Johar and there was a lot of
controversy and a lot of things and I know how an
individual especially someone who is not from the film
family feels when he is attached to such a big company
and then has to part ways and start on his own. So he
was tentative before the film started and for the
first one or two days, but I just think that he has
come on his own, after the second and third day, I
felt that he is one the finest directors.
Juhi Chawla is playing opposite to you how is your
rapport with her?
We are professionals, rapport and all these things are
for the youngsters, who have just started their
careers. For me, it is the role and if the person
opposite to me is a good actress then it is much
better for me and Juhi is a fine actress, I really
enjoyed working with her. She is definitely a really
very fine actress; it was fun working with her. It is
always great to work with professionals and actors who
really know the job well and Juhi is one of them.
Tell us something about the music?
I love the music. There are times when just one or two
tracks are very good in a film but after a long time,
this is a film which has all very good numbers.
How was your whole experience?
Experience has to be good, that is the reason I am
sitting in front of you. Otherwise I would not be
giving this interview to you. I am just waiting for
the film to release.
What is the USP of this film?
USP of the film is the entire script, the scale, the
values, the entertainment, the performance, the
direction, the action, the photography which is
absolutely exquisite. Last year there have been really
big successes in the Indian film industry but I happen
to be a few of them. With all due respect, the films
are very successful and I just felt that the audience
is being very kind to us and very kind to these film
makers. Obviously, we all are very happy with the
films which have been huge successes. But now with
this film, sometimes I get worried because it is very
good, so I hope that people react to very good films
because there were certain films, which were not that
good and they became such big successes. "aisa to nahi
hai na ke aajkal acchi filmoko log pasand nahi karte."
That is the fear I have because the film is really
good.
What are the other films in the pipeline?
After Salam-E-Ishq, I have a film called Welcome,
which is again with Anees Bazmi, but Salam-E-Ishq
technically is my next film after No Entry. I have not
had a release, I had one or two guest appearances
which I had in a few films last year but basically it
is my new film after No Entry. I have not had a
release since a year. No Entry was directed by Anees
Bazmi and now again I am doing a film with Anees Bazmi
and the film is almost completed and it should release
in May. The films name is Welcome, it is an out and
out comedy and I think I will have Subhash Ghai's
film, Black and White. We are working together in this
film after Taal, so these are the three films.
You have talked about No Entry, it was a track
where you have played a very scared husband, where
getting into an extramarital affair was very difficult
but this is one track in Salaam-e-Ishq where you fall
in love after your marriage, so how do you correlate
these two characters. What if it happens to you if you
fall out of your marriage and you fall in love with a
girl who is half of your age?
No Entry is a film where I have an affair outside my
marriage and in this film also I am happily married
with children. Happily means not very happy, that is
what I feel. Actually I feel that the happiness is not
on the surface, I imagine that I am not happy, I am
bored with my married life. So No Entry was an out and
out comedy but this is not, it has got the light
moment but it is a very romantic, you cannot say on a
serious level but on a real level.
No Entry was a little fascicle, a little comical, this
is very real, the whole situations and the
interactions and the performances are on the real
side, with the lighter side of the situation. Also,
there is a lot of entertainment, so that is the
difference between No Entry and Salam-E-Ishq. But if
you see in No Entry also I was married. I was married
to Lara Dutta and get attracted towards Bipasha Basu.
But in that I get attracted to her physically but in
Salam-e-Ishq; it is physical as well as mental. So
that is the difference and as I said Salam-E-Ishq is
very real and very identifiable, even No Entry was
very identifiable but I am sure that my role in
Salam-E-Ishq is very identifiable because I am sure
that every person in his life, goes through this kind
of a situation and how man is basically a kind of an
animal who always looks around and gets attracted and
infatuated towards her and specially when the girl is
half of his age.
Have you ever faced such a situation in your real
life?
I face this kind of a situation everyday.
At the age of forty a man becomes naughty but looks
like you are still sixteen, It look like you are still
intact with your sixteen years of age?
I know where I stand, I see myself in the mirror, on
the screen, I look slightly better but that is because
I look after myself, I maintain myself. But you don't
expect me to run around trees and sing songs,
obviously I have done all these things and now I have
to do songs that have to be very much suiting my
character or otherwise I just cannot break into a song
today. So these are the things which you have to
change with time and fortunately for me the films have
been written around me, roles have been written for
me, characters are written for me.
Today also the top film makers are showing interest.
They really do want to work with me and vice versa, so
it is great time for all of us. Especially for an
actor like me. my hard work and my sincerity are
getting very involved with the work Twenty years back
or fifteen years back, they would have taken it in a
very negative way and they would have felt that he
gets involved too much, he puts on weight, loses his
weight, why he has to do so much, I was one of the
actors who used to do anything for the character and
now I can see that everyone is doing the same thing.
So it is more the merrier. Now I do not feel like an
outsider, I feel that now I am with the people who are
thinking the way I used to think.
Aren't you happy, the way you used to portray your
roles, grew your moustaches, remove them, cut your
hair, now the trend is coming in the market, look at
Guru, Mr Abhishek Bacchan, he was required to do that.
So you must be happy that the trend which you set
twenty years back actually been realized by people now
and people are understanding the authenticity of an
actor on screen?
I used to get very uncomfortable by artificial beards
and wigs in one of the films I did, it does not only
get into the character where the lines you mouth, you
cannot completely physically transform yourself. But
trying your best to give something different to the
film, to the audience, you have to be yourself. One
cannot change that much but just little changes in the
way you walk, the way you look, your hairs, your
smile, your dialogue delivery, your physicality,
according to the character, it is not that you are
just going to the set and just get away with your
lines, do a little bit of your homework. It is
exciting.
As you said that you love to get into the skin of
the character, you have also tried lot of genres, like
you have tried comedy, action and then romantic. Which
genre you enjoyed the most?
All of them. Sometimes you are going through a phase
of your life where you want to only do comedies and
sometimes you are going to an intense phase of your
life and suddenly an intense script comes to your way
and you just think that I will do this. But basically,
I feel that the audience wants entertainment, they do
want to see dramatic films, but ultimately they want
the entertainment as well. Salam-E-Ishq is a pure
mainstream entertainer with logic, it has done in a
very realistic way and I am sure that people will love
the film.
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