Shahid Kapur talks about his life and loves. From Kareena to Vidya to Sania. About his rejections and successes. A reveal all interview with NDTV’s Sreenivasan Jain on Bombay Talkies.

NDTV: Hello and welcome to Bombay Talkies. My guest is someone with Bollywood finest pedigrees and it is now finally beginning to show. Shahid Kapur joins me on the show.

The latest is that you are seeing Sania Mirza? That probably on a bizarre scale tops all of them. Where did that start? You meant to see a match or something like that?

Shahid: No, I mean we know each other we are friends.

NDTV: Just good friends?

Shahid: Well I guess that’s a private space I don’t want to talk about it but you know it’s very simple and I am a regular guy I go out watch movies, I go out to have dinner, go to a friends place and hang out.

NDTV: Tennis matches?

Shahid: Actually I haven’t, I would like to though. I haven’t seen a cricket match live either. I would like to do that too, but coming back to what I was saying, so if there is somebody in my life, if I am seeing someone, if I am in a relationship, people will come to know about it. But at the same time I don’t feel the need to sit in an interview and announce that whom I am seeing and whom I am not, because it’s my personal life and my private space as far as my family knows about it, my friends know about it, those are the people that matter and should know it.

NDTV: Before that there was this whole Vidya Balan thing.

NDTV: Ever since my last relationship kind of ended I have been reading stuff about myself in the papers all the time. I am getting used to it now.

NDTV: You are an incredibly lucky guy, all the press has got it all wrong.

Shahid: It depends on what your concept of lucky is?

NDTV: Come on all of them were great but again with Vidya was it you think again it was all because you did a film together?

Shahid: Yes, I am sure that has to do with it, also I was shooting for Kismat Konnection when I broke up and also I mean we are friends and we have gone out to public places a few times and maybe people read in to that.

NDTV: So you are just good friends again I mean this story of your life.

Shahid: I know the most boring answer I am giving.

NDTV: But you know Shahid, one of the things about you and Kareena when you were seeing each other, you were very public with it. You weren’t like most couples, trying to hide it. Did you feel that boomeranged in some ways when you broke up because there was so much attention then?

Shahid: When we were seeing each other, I was just 23.

NDTV: You guys meet where on sets or you just?

Shahid: No, we met through a common friend actually and that is how we got to know each other we hadn’t really know each other from before. So, I guess we didn’t really know how things would happen also I think the media has grown a lot in last three or four years and I guess whatever happens happened towards the release of Jab We Met there was all the focus on it. So I guess that’s why it became the way it did but almost everything becomes like that now. Anything small happens and it gets blown up so that’s something you have to just get used to.

NDTV: Intially I guess the MMS moment happened. It must have been very upsetting. The kind of thing you had not thought of and it made you a little more worldy wise. Is there is still some thing that upsets you?

Shahid: Of course its upsets you at some level but I guess you just became a little more tolerant with time because its not much you can do to help it.

NDTV: But Shahid in that initial phase when you guys where seeing each other, she was much more established and had a higher profile and you were still trying to find your feet. Was it awkward at all?

Shahid: It depends on how you perceive yourself and the situation. For me I was very clear on that. I was just one film old when we meet and she had already done 20 films and she also came from the Kapoor family.

NDTV: You also came from a Kapoor family.

Shahid: I did 60 auditions and got rejected before I did Ishq Vishk… so the spaces that we were in were very very different from each other and think I am a realistic guy. I think I have a quiet a realistic perception of situation. I was very aware of the fact that even when we started meeting each other.

NDTV: Was it really upsetting that you, that you were largely in the news because of being Kareena’s boyfriend and not because you were an actor in your own right?

Shahid: I didn’t feel it happened all the time but there were certain time it did get perceived like that. But I had in all about 12 releases in four years so I was in the news for my work as well and a few of my films didn’t do well but that also got written about. So you can’t really get out of the news for any reasons, that is something that is natural and I had accepted it when I had decided to get into the relationship. Yes but sometimes I read it and I didn’t feel good about it. Yes but there are phases in life, which each one has to adjust to.

NDTV: You guys did three films together, before Jab We Met.

Shahid: There was Fida, then 36 China Town and then Chup Chup Ke. Well Fida didn’t do well. 36 China Town and Chup Chup Ke are what we call the above to above average films, but neither of them hit the jackpot on the box office.

NDTV: But you guys are just good friends to borrow a phase.

Shahid: Not really, honestly we are not in touch very often and I think that’s pretty natural and that’s what happens

NDTV: Are you ok now?

Shahid: You know I have always been ok. But people keep on reminding you of your past all the time. It is cool man.

NDTV: Yes because she is also very public there, because she is in front of everyone with Saif and so I guess its one of the reasons.

Shahid: We are actors, even if we want to keep things private are we aren’t given a choice.

NDTV: So you are ok? You are just good friends with whole lot of beautiful women and you reserve the right to remain silent on that.

Shahid: Good you answered it for me.

NDTV: But Shahid it wasn’t a natural corollary for you right? Being Pankaj Kapur’s son that you end up in films. That wasn’t necessarily the way it was going to work. I mean you were telling me that before you were a dancer with Shiamak.

Shahid: Yes I was a dancer for four years, I took it up as an hobby. I passed out of school and I loved dancing and I wanted to learn. So I joined his institute and he liked me so she asked me to join his troupe. And I was in college so I thought I am getting to do something that I like to do, and I will get some penny out of it so why not do it. I am very happy because it really helps in this profession. But its not that I was born to Pankaj Kapur so I would become an actor. I am somebody who is very skeptical be sure whether I will be able to pull it off or not. Because that’s the first trap you get into because for someone who comes from a different background it is very glamorous.

NDTV: And it is supposed to be easier but in your case you said it wasn’t so easier, you said you did 60 auditions before.

Shahid: Did not count yaar, but yes did go for a lot of auditions and got rejected too.

NDTV: Who rejected you?

Shahid: A lot of them. None of those films worked, so I am happy I got rejected

NDTV: So there is justice in the world

Shahid: Yes absolutely, in fact Ken rejected me. Because I was 21 years old and I was trying to be a hero and I was very lucky my first film was a college film. People accepted me because of that otherwise they would have said please ask this kid to come after 10 years.

NDTV: So which were the directors who said no?

Shahid: Names I honestly don’t remember.

NDTV: You honestly do not remember or you do not want to name them, may be you are working with one of them

Shahid: No big directors did not reject me, newcomer type directors had rejected me. Someone’s-3rd-assistant-is-making-a-film type

NDTV: So once you got going, what was your fathers reaction?

Shahid: He saw my first film, he thought I was nice. He said you are able to fit into all the elements of a hero.

NDTV: Was he polite or he was just…

Shahid: You should ask him that. But we have a relationship where one doesn’t need to be polite, he just has to be honest. But he has always told me that I should try and play characters, try and do something new in every film, not to get stuck in the trap with the comfort zone. Try and do something different.

NDTV: Are you getting influenced by him because he comes from a different kind of acting background. I look up to him in every performance of his and what more can you do as an actor. What’s your favourite?

Shahid: Not one there are two-three. There is Maqbool, then another serial Neem ka Ped and a short film called Rui ka Boj and Ek Doctor ki Maut is another film that I thought was beautiful.

NDTV: Is it intimidating, does he come on your sets to watch you?

Shahid: Yes he has. He was once passing by and we were in Lonavala shooting for Jab We Met when Geet burns the photograph, he just thought of catching up for lunch. And i just couldn’t give the shot. I wasn’t prepared and he was sitting in front of the monitor, and you know I could think of all those expectations from a father. And I was thinking ok I am not able to live unto any of them until now… and I just said Dad why don’t you go ahead with lunch, I will join you shortly. And he just smiled at me and said ok. I don’t think its intimidating because he is my father and he is whom I respect, love adore and you know idealise. The fact that I am born to him, I am proud of him. I feel fortunate to be in the presence to gain from him and I look at him from a very positive side.

NDTV: Its somehow upsetting for those of us who watch him and his contemporaries of that period and watch them now, he has struggled to get those roles till he did Maqbool, he really did not get the roles that match his acting caliber and its true for many of his contemporaries. Its interesting that you know you are doing good, but for those kind of films in his generation are not been written or made.

Shahid: Things are much better now.There are so many channels. So many films being made. Its much bigger and much easier to be a part of the film industry. I mean whoever wants to do something in films its not even 1/10th of what they had to do in those days. There was just one channel – Doordarshan – and there were much fewer producers and much fewer films made. The audience was mentally in a certain type of phase to watch certain type of films. I guess it is easier now. I guess we all are very fortunate.

NDTV: Out of the current lot of actors, whom do you like? Whom do you admire?

Shahid: I think Hrithik is someone who does really good work. I really like watching his films.

NDTV: There is something about you and Shah Rukh. What is that? You are supposed to have a Shah Rukh fixation. I have just seen Jab We Met, and I couldn’t see any evidence of that.

Shahid: You know there is something that an actor said which is very correct, that it takes 10 films for an actor to discover himself. He is always trying to do something that he has seen other actors do and I guess that’s a process that I went through and today I am very comfortable with the person I am. My goods, my bads. I guess somewhere the reflections were there. I wouldn’t say I went through a Shah Rukh phase, but there were some performances I have seen that have stayed in my head and subconsciously it could have come out somewhere. But when I look back at my work I don’t see any similarity in the performance.

NDTV: So Hritihk you admire, Shah Rukh?

Shahid: Shah Rukh Khan is Shah Rukh Khan. Man, the entire country admires him. Aamir Khan the kind of cinema that he is making is what we all should be a proud of.

NDTV: Is there anyone whom you don’t admire?

Shahid: Now you are getting me in trouble.

NDTV: And what about heroines, you have acted with quite a few. Do you fine anyone of them more in terms of acting?

Shahid: Well I have been a fan of Madhuri Dixit, she was fantastic. She is whose performance I really like. In the new lot Kareena is very good, Vidya is very good. I am looking forward to work with Rani I guess. I saw Black and she was fantastic in that.

NDTV: Did you see Tashan? Your views?

Shahid: Not in front of camera. Because I will be in trouble even if I say anything, good or bad.

NDTV: Well its a film you can…

Shahid: Well I liked it in portions, honestly. I am from the film industry I know how much of hard work it takes to get into a film. I really don’t want to sit here and criticize it.

NDTV: You can say its a bad film. Its ok. A lot of people did.

Shahid: I mean you are forcing me to say something I don’t want to say.

NDTV: You were telling me that you are doing a Vishal Bharadwaj film you are looking forward to. Will that be a kind of a break from the kind of stuff you have been doing? You think you have got slotted between this sweet chocolate boy kind of role?

Shahid: I think Jab We Met was a break. I think Vivah compared to the past was very different. The films of you all that do well becomes the focus of what people remember of you. Even my second film Fida was a complete departure from the first. So I guess with time you tend to build a relationship with the audience and I am trying to build a relationship with every new film of mine. People are ready to give me that one chance even if I am trying to do something new. But I think it takes time and it takes a certain kind of credibility which comes with a certain kind of cinema that you do. So I have had three successful films in the past few years, and a couple which did ok. So I think I have begun that process. I think I have started that process were people will start taking what I do in films much more seriously.

NDTV: Are there any big guys coming to you?

Shahid: There are no big and small guys. Like when Imtiyaz before making Jab We Met had been someone who was roaming around for three years with the script. today The he is considered amongst the top 5-6 directors of the country.

NDTV: Still the Karan Johars and the Yash Rajs are coming up…

Shahid: Still for me its just about the script. Honestly the same film maker can make a good film and a bad film. On one hand there are few filmmakers that I am looking forward to work.

NDTV: Like who?

Shahid: Let me tell you the films that I really liked, so those are the directors whom I would like to work with – Rang De Basanti, Taare Zameen Par, Chak De India, Munnabhai and Jab We Met.

NDTV: Well good luck Shahid and hopefully those directors will come your way. Thanks so much for doing Bombay Talkies.