'I want to play a villain. There is something really exciting about villains.'
'They have beautiful girls around them every time, lots of money and all the luxuries because of which I don’t mind dying in the end.'
Ranbir Kapoor speaks his mind.
Ranbir Kapoor wants to leave his flops -- and any talk of his marriage plans -- behind him, as he stays focused on his big release coming up: Bombay Velvet.
The actor chats about the film, living away from his parents, and the 'tormentor' in his life, and Sonil Dedhia/ Rediff.com listens in.
Your last two films (Besharam and Roy) were disasters. How important is it that Bombay Velvet should be a success?
Be it Bombay Velvet or my other upcoming films (Tamasha and Jagga Jasoos), every film is important for me.
My last two films didn't work at all. I was very arrogant and cocky. I was coming with two big hits behind me (Rockstar and Barfi!) and I took my audience for granted. That's why I fell flat on my face.
I thought if I sing songs and crack jokes, it would work but it didn't.
You need to learn and fall. When my earlier films worked, my stock went up and then suddenly it plummeted down. The audience started doubting my choices.
It’s a constant struggle every actor goes through. I am doing the films that excite and challenge me as an actor.
You were doing big-ticket films where you were the sole hero. So why did you do Roy, where you had a small role?
I did an extended cameo in Roy because the film was directed by a childhood friend (Vikramjit Singh). He said if I am part of the film, he will get a good budget to make it.
It was wrong because we cannot mix our personal and professional lives.
With two flops behind you, is this a difficult phase?
My first film (Saawariya) was a disaster. I was 23. I thought my first film would be a superhit and I would have a big fan following.
But since I have grown up in a film family, I have seen success as well as failure.
I don’t let success go to my head and failure to my heart.
Much has been written about your relationship with Katrina Kaif and your marriage plans.
I am in love and I feel committed and responsible. But when it comes to a wedding, speculation spoils the fun. I request the media to stop speculating about my wedding date. I think you cannot keep it private. We are actors.
My wedding date was fixed six years go. It's a special day so let me announce it.
But right now there are no plans as we are both busy this year. There's no time for marriage.
Your father Rishi Kapoor has become a hit on Twitter but you have not joined any social networking platform...
I don’t intend to join any social networking platform.
I feel an actor doesn’t have freedom of speech on Twitter. If an actor writes something, people will interpret it in different ways and then you have to clarify things at a press conference.
Twitter and my father are meant for each other. My father loves to speak his mind and he can be really funny. At the same time, he can be controversial and I think everyone likes that.
People don’t want to see politically correct individuals and my father is the most politically incorrect person.
He recently mentioned that it was too late to change his equation with you.
The relationship that I share with my father is one of the most special ones because I know that a man is silently standing in a corner and looking out for me.
He may challenge me, put me down and not praise me whole-heartedly, but he is doing it so that I don’t put my hands up and say I have achieved everything. He is pushing me to do better. I love him with my whole heart. So does he, but we are not backslapping buddies.
I can talk and discuss my life with my mother but I can’t do that with my father.
I think my relationship with my father will always be this way.
The media has made our relationship like a soap opera but that isn’t the case.
I temporarily moved out of my house as we need to demolish the old one and make a new one.
I miss my parents a lot. But in a way, it has helped me because from a boy, I have become a man.
Earlier, he was the man in the house, who would take certain decisions. Now, I have become more responsible as I run my own house.
From the beginning, Bombay Velvet has had a negative press. Why is that?
The first promo received an average response.
The film was delayed and that was frustrating for me but in the end, I understood that the delay was to make the film better.
This was the first time Anurag (Kashyap, director) was working with big stars and with a huge budget. There was some scepticism whether he would be able to pull it off.
Also, my last two films didn’t work, so that added to the pressure to deliver a good film.
But in a way, it's good because people have low expectations from the film and when they see it, they will be surprised.
I am sure it will remove all the doubts that people have about the film.
As you say, Anurag has refrained from working with stars, so why do you think he chose to work with you?
I never questioned him about it.
I hadn’t seen any of Anurag’s previous films; I saw Gangs Of Wasseypur after I started working on Bombay Velvet. I loved it.
The world that Anurag has created in Bombay Velvet is simply amazing.
I got the opportunity to break my image and do something different and drastic. It may not work, and people might not accept me for it, but it was very important for me to try.
I have always been selfish about working with good directors.
Vikas Bahl gave me this script (of Bombay Velvet) and I read it on the plane. I called up Anurag and told him that I wanted to do this role.
Anurag felt that I had always done urban characters. He told me he will get back to me in two to three days. He called me after a week and said I was on.
The story-telling is contemporary, but the setting is period. Is that difficult for an actor?
It’s a misconception that if you are making a period film then everyone is walking and talking slowly.
People in the 1960s laughed and cried in the same way as we do today.
What has progressed is the fashion and the sense of style.
The entire credit of Bombay Velvet goes to Anurag because he had such an amazing vision.
I remember when we reached the sets in Sri Lanka and saw the old Bombay that was recreated, I was amazed and said to myself that I don’t deserve this.
Tell us about your experience of working with Anushka Sharma.
I enjoyed working with Anushka because she comes without any baggage. She not only wants to put in a good performance but also helps others to do well. Working with her helped me improve my acting skills.
She is a natural actor who knows her work.
You mentioned at the trailer launch that Karan Johar has been your mentor. Could you imagine him playing an antagonist in Bombay Velvet?
Karan is a phenomenon. I have seen him as a director, and worked with him as a producer. He is an excellent talk show and awards show host and even a fashion designer.
But to picture him playing an antagonist is impossible. He plays such a manipulative and manic character.
He has done a brilliant job in the movie.
It was an amazing experience working with him. The mentor became the tormentor in the film (laughs).
There is talk of you doing biopics of Sanjay Dutt and Kishore Kumar.
I want to do them but let me tell you that making a biopic is very hard.
You can’t just make an entertaining film. A biopic narrates the real story of a human and there cannot be any propaganda in it.
There is talk of a Kishore Kumar and a Sanjay Dutt biopic, but as of now, these are just ideas. No bound scripts have come to me. But it will be interesting to enact a celebrated life on screen.
Are you planning to direct a film?
I want to direct, but when I am working with such talented directors, I realise how difficult the job is.
As an actor, you are working for yourself. But as a director, you are working for everyone and you still don’t get credit.
As of now, I don’t have a story that has excited me to turn director. So there are no plans now.
Any interesting character that you want to play on screen?
I want to play a villain.
There is something really exciting about villains.
They have beautiful girls around them every time, lots of money and all the luxuries because of which I don’t mind dying in the end (laughs).
I really want to play a negative character and hope people don’t judge me for it.
