He’s one of my favorite actors, I grew up watching and re-watching and dancing to his Om Shanti Om number. I have watched his Chandini umpteen number of times. Not an easy man to interview but it’s always a pleasure to interview Rishi Kapoor because you come back learning so much more and he has so many stories from the good old days to share.
Image Credit: Movie – 102 Not Out
In an exclusive interview with HotFridayTalks.com, we not only discussed his latest release 102 Not Out but a whole lot more. Quoting him below, in a non-stop conversation on why he is enjoying this phase of his acting career. Rishi Kapoor tells us that as an actor he is more satisfied today and at a happy place with the kind of roles he is doing here’s why;
“I am not from the method acting school, I don’t have a method, I don’t follow that style of acting. I am an actor and an entertainer, I am sorry I don’t have a method and if that makes me a bad actor then maybe I am a bad actor, but that is not my style of acting.With due respect to all those who do follow it, I personally don’t believe in that style of acting.”
Image Credit: Movie – Chandni
“In my earlier films, I never got roles and characters to play, I was doing the same things in every film, shooting songs in Switzerland, wearing those sweaters that I was famously known for whereas my contemporaries had all kinds of roles to play. But that does mean I am complaining, I did 25 years of romancing one after the other in every film. I may not have been the biggest star in this country but I was always among the first five stars in this country. No actor has survived non stop 25 years, but I never got credit as an actor and I don’t blame anyone but myself for it. It was because I never gave them any reason to appreciate me. I was only singing songs even though I got lovely songs to sing! I never got any roles except a handful like Tawaif, Damini, Prem Rog where I had something to do. Other than that what was I doing in the film?”
Image Credit: Indianexpress.com
Speaking about his failures, Rishi is very open and even laughs at some of his own films. He says, “When I tried to do something like Khoj, where I was to play a negative character, the movie did not work because the distributors made them change the end. Danny, Naseeruddin and I fought with the director but he refused to listen to us saying things like; ‘If we show Rishi Kapoor in a negative role nobody will come to the theater.’ So we had to compromise the logic of the movie by changing the end. We had to face things like this where the so-called agents etc. dictated terms to the filmmakers. But today things are different, it doesn’t work that way.
Films like Sheshnag and Sherdil are films which when I am gone from this world will be my classics! I make fun of these films of mine even on my twitter. I have no idea what made me do films like these two! Those two films are probably the worst experience of my life! I should be walloped for making people spend money to come and watch films like that! ( In between the conversation he asks me if I have had something to eat). Having said that, a lot depends on luck too in this industry, not just talent. A lot depends on luck.”
We say the film industry is lucky to have an actor like Rishi Kapoor!
Read Also: 102 Not Out Movie Review: Amitabh Bachchan And Rishi Kapoor Are Not Out At All!
