Mustafa Quraishi/Associated Press Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor at a press conference in New Delhi on May 20, 2010.LONDON â€" Ranbir Kapoor, 30, was in London recently to promote “Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani,†or, loosely translated, “Being Young, Being Crazy,†in which he co-stars with his former girlfriend Deepika Padukone. Directed by Ayan Mukherjee, the movie follows the lives of four young college graduates and the evolution of their relationships over nearly a decade. Bunny (Ranbir Kapoor) and Naina (Deepika Padukone) meet at two separate points in their lives in the film, first when they are just out of college and then as 30-year-olds, holding on to certain unfulfilled dreams. (Spoiler alert: Somewhere along the line, they also fall in love.)
Mr. Kapoor, of the illustrious Bollywood Kapoor family, has charmed audiences with his good looks and boyish charisma in recent years. He made a mark for himself in 2009 when he played Sid, a young, spoiled brat in “Wake Up Sid.†In that movie, his character transforms from an aimless rich kid to a photographer, finding love in the process.
In an interview with India Ink he described his upcoming movie and answered questions on everything from whether Bollywood actors deserve the high salaries they demand to how it was to work with his ex.
.nytVideo, .nytVideo video, .youtubeVideo, .youtubeVideo iframe { background: none repeat scroll 0 0 #000000; } .youtubeVideo { position: relative; } .youtubeVideo, .youtubeVideo .thumb { height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.25%; } .youtubeVideo iframe { height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%; z-index: 1; } .youtubeVideo .playButton { border-radius: 10px 10px 10px 10px; height: 46px; left: 50%; margin: -23px 0 0 -35px; position: absolute; top: 50%; width: 70px; z-index: 2; background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(90deg, #6e0610, #ff0000); /* Safari 5.1+, Mobile Safari, Chrome 10+ */ background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(90deg, #6e0610, #ff0000); /* Firefox 3.6+ */ background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(90deg, #6e0610, #ff0000); /* IE 10+ */ background-image: -o-linear-gradient(90deg, #6e0610, #ff0000); /* Opera 11.10+ */ } .youtubeVideo .thumb { overflow: hidden; width: 100%; } .youtubeVideo .thumb img { height: auto; width: 100%; } .youtubeVideo:hover .thumb { cursor: pointer; } .youtubeVideo:hover .playButton { } .youtubeVideo .playButton .arrow { border-bottom: 10px solid transparent; border-left: 20px solid #FFFFFF; border-top: 10px solid transparent; height: 0; left: 28px; position: absolute; top: 13px; width: 0; } .clearfix:after { clear: both; content: "."; display: block; height: 0; visibility: hidden; }
Tell me about your upcoming film.
It’s a coming of age love story. You know it talks about a simple philosophy of happiness, that it is real only when it’s shared. We, after a certain age, after college, are so consumed about what we want to achieve in life, and we fiercely are ambitious and we go after that, but sometimes we tend to take all our loved and dear ones for granted.
On the looks of it, it seems really glamorous and popcorn-ish, but at the heart of it, it’s really very layered, very deep film. It’s a far more wider film than “Wake Up Sid.â€
Lot of people would say that “Wake Up Sid,†a romantic comedy, is one genre that you know you are fantastic at. But do you want to move on from roles inside a college campus. Is that something that’s priority for you?
You know to be honest, I am 30 years old. There are certain films that are being made now, certain filmmakers want to tell stories of actors of a certain age, characters of a certain age, and I don’t want to play a character going through midlife crisis because I am not that age and I have time to do that.
So yes, you might find certain similarities in the world of my movies, but I try and mix it up - you know when I do a “Wake Up Sid†and I try and do a “Rocket Singh†[a drama that follows a young graduate working as a salesman] at the same time.
But having said that, “Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani†is a very hard genre. You know, it seems easy because somewhere you have to reflect your own personality. [But] you don’t have trappings of a character that you can reference. So you are exposing a lot of your own personality, and I think that’s really hard to do. So it has been a challenging part for me.
What is it like working with Deepika Padukone? How do you set the baggage of your past aside and work in a professional capacity. Is it hard?
I think it is just the media which over-hyped it. Even after Deepika and me broke up, we maintained a friendship, and we are really close friends even today. So when we come on a movie, we come individually as actors because we have liked our parts individually and that’s pretty much it.
You know, I am ambitious, I am hard working and so is she, and we both want to do our job to best of our capabilities. So it has nothing to do with past; it has nothing to do with who is bringing what and what baggage. And is it awkward? No. I mean, we are on a movie set, we are working and that’s pretty much it.
Can we speak about events in the news? The gang rapes that have been happening in India have given India a very bad name on the global stage, and we are talking to you in London. What is that one thing you think can be done to change the situation, that you as an actor can do with a massive fan following?
You know, you just have to be a good person. You know…how do you make a person good? You can’t teach that. I anyways don’t believe in society’s dos and don’ts, but as a human being what you think is right instinctively, you go ahead and you do that.
There is nothing that can be done, there is no law that can be passed, there is no lesson that can be learned or taught. You just have to be a good person, that’s pretty much it.
Do you think Bollywood can take a leading role in changing the situation on the ground?
Well of course films are an influence, you know part of people’s lives. But it’s a movie. It’s not an advertisement of right and wrong. What you show in the film is meant for entertainment. It’s meant to escape from your daily problems and kind of submerge into the world of the movies.
But I am sure that there will be filmmakers who want to take up a cause like this and actually make a movie which speaks and reflects upon the demons of our society and certain people. But I don’t think you can force a moral opinion or you can force something through a Bollywood film.
Coming back to films, we have heard that you are called Pepsi in your next film, and you’re a spokesman for the drink. Can you confirm the new film character for us and do you have sort of any ethical concerns when advertising takes this sort of aggressive form?
No to be honest, that’s not true, not entirely true what you just said about my name being Pepsi in a movie. But, yes, I do believe that in film, endorsements sometimes can be really ridiculous if not used in proper effect.
You have to understand film-making is a very expensive medium, and by doing in film endorsements sometimes you cover a large part of your cost. But you have to do that sensibly. It cannot seem forced because you are anyway trying to create a world and make people believe in that world that you are showing and if you are holding a packet of detergent powder and advertising that in a movie through your character it doesn’t make sense unless it’s part of the screenplay. So I don’t believe in that myself.
Yes, I do endorse brands, brands that I believe in individually, brands that I use, brands that I am proud to sell. But I wouldn’t do that for my films because that’s something I do separately. What I do with my films is something I am extremely passionate about. It’s something, which I will not corrupt, with things like this.
There’s been controversy about the amount of money that your contemporaries are charging â€" the figures I believe range from 110 million rupees ($2 million) to 150 million rupees ($2.7 million) a film. Can you tell us how much you charge? Does the amount of money being asked trouble you?
Well, there were many questions in that one. About what my contemporaries are charging, I have no idea. What I charge, I think it’s really stupid to talk about. But you have to understand that film is a growing industry.
There is a lot of money that’s coming to films because a lot of people are watching films around the world. Actors are being paid that much because they probably deserve it; otherwise why would producers pay that much? Having said that, I think yes, sometimes being an actor I feel, and being a young actor, I feel I am being overpaid.
You are still not going to tell us how much you charge?
I mean that’s really unethical. It’s silly to talk about that. I don’t really have a take on it.
I guess you can’t put pressure on a movie, on a budget of a movie by charging too much money. So a lot of actors, what they do is they take percentage in the profits or take the risk of not taking that amount of money. And if the movie does well, and then they’ll take that amount.
But having said that, money has never been my driving force. You know, to be honest, I was born in luxury. I never saw the dearth of money so money is not something which motivates me. You know, if it’s there, it’s there. I am grateful that I do what I love, and that’s what really matters.
(The interview has been edited and condensed.)Watch a video of the entire, unedited interview.
No comments:
Post a Comment