'After Kabir Singh, everyone said I should do a 150 crore film, that people will back me up with money.'
'I thought, sure, they will put money, but what will the film be?'
Shahid Kapoor says his intent is to chase the 'heart of a film' and not the 'size' as big scale movies often run the risk of going out of control.
Kapoor, who was last seen in Kabir Singh, his career's biggest hit, said he was advised to follow the movie's success with a big scale project but he wasn't interested.
"After Kabir Singh, everyone said I should do a 150 crore film, that people will back me up with money. I thought, sure, they will put money but what will the film be? There's a difference between making a scaled film and a good film," Kapoor said at a press conference.
Kapoor, 41, said he doesn't believe that a film mounted on a big scale would be a sure shot crowd puller.
A film has to connect with the audience to work at the box office, irrespective of the scale, he added.
"It's still possible for me to do a big film, but why am I doing this (Jersey) and not that? Because I am chasing the heart of a film, not the size of the film. To me, the heart of the film is the size of the film.
"I don't come from that thinking that it you spend a lot of money, audiences will turn in huge numbers... I get scared of doing big budget films because in those, things go out of your hand. There are a lot of factors in it," he added.
Jersey will release alongside the much-awaited actioner KGF: Chapter 2.
But Kapoor, who returns to the screen three years after Kabir Singh, feels a good film will always find its audience.
"If KGF 2 is a good film, it will surely work. If Jersey is a good film, it will definitely work. There is an audience which wants to watch our film, another wants to watch the other film that's coming out and then there is also that audience which simply wants to watch a film.
"They wait for a holiday to watch a movie. So why should you not be the film that is in the theatres when everyone wants to go and watch a movie?" he added.
Directed by Gowtham Tinnanuri, who also helmed the original, Jersey chronicles the story of a talented but failed cricketer (Kapoor), who decides to return to the field in his late 30s driven by the desire to represent the Indian cricket team and fulfill his son's wish for a jersey as a gift.
Also starring Mrunal Thakur, the film is a Hindi remake of the 2019 Telugu blockbuster of the same name. It is produced by Allu Aravind, Dil Raju and Aman Gill.
