Rishi Kapoor on the burnt down RK Studio, his upcoming film that reunites him with a ‘courageous’ Taapsee Pannu and why she stands apart from other actresses
Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 19, 2017)

Rishi Kapoor, who has been juggling between Umesh Shukla’s 102 Not Out and Anubhav Sinha’s Mulk, is back in Mumbai from a five-day Lucknow schedule of the latter, in time for Diwali. But after a four-day break, it will get even busier, the actor tells Mirror at an Andheri studio where he is shooting for the last day of Shukla’s film. “We were to wrap up on Monday, but the unseasonal rains played spoilsport, resulting in early pack-up. I return to Lucknow for a 20-day shoot of Mulk, after which I start work on Leena Yadav’s Rajma Chawal,” he says.

Rishi recently took his followers by surprise when he shared his Mulk look online. “The look was my conception but Preetisheel Singh’s (make-up artist) team brought it to life with special effects makeup. For someone like me, who enjoys doing different characters, it’s important to find the right team,” he explains, clarifying that contrary to reports, he is playing a positive character. “It’s like the saying, ‘All terrorists are Muslims but all Muslims are not terrorists’. I play a retired lawyer, a serious, devout Muslim, who takes up a case for justice.”

Mulk marks his reunion with Taapsee Pannu, with whom he had featured in David Dhawan’s 2013 comedy, Chashme Baddoor. “She is a spirited actor and has been part of some successful films. No young heroine ever says, ‘I’m working in a film with a senior, has-been actor like Rishi Kapoor.’ I loved the fact that Taapsee said that she is working in Anubhav Sinha’s film with me. Any other heroine would like to say I’m working with Hrithik Roshan or my son, Ranbir Kapoor,” he beams, adding that Taapsee’s contemporaries could use a cue from her. “You know she’s got guts when she says, ‘My role and the story are important, not the actor’. I commend her for that.”

He goes on to admit that he’s a character actor today though he has the main role in a film which has other good actors like Rajat Kapoor, Manoj Pahwa, Ashutosh Rana, Neena Gupta and Prachi Shah. “A star like, maybe Alia (Bhatt) or another actress may find it uncool but Taapsee is so level-headed; she wants to work in films where she is not just a bimbo. To work in a good film, it’s not necessary to have a big hero; you just need a good part. Deepika (Padukone) or Priyanka (Chopra) can take risks because they have graduated to being huge stars but a newcomer like Taapsee taking on a film like this is courageous,” he reiterates.

The 65-year-old actor is gung-ho about 102 Not Out, in which he shares screen space with Amitabh Bachchan. “We are trying for a January 20 release so I have to complete the dubbing too. We are working together after 27 years, it’s fun,” he says.

Ask him on the future of R K Studios, which was gutted in a fire recently, and Kapoor says there’s a while before the family decides how to reconstruct it. “It’s been a month since the fire and we are still looking into the insurance and things. We will eventually rebuild the studio but we don’t know how and when. Today, it’s not practical to build studios but we would like to do it for emotional reasons. Whatever my father built is all burnt down. All the memories, even publicity material; everything lays gutted. But we brothers, want to reclaim the spirit of the studio,” he says.

We move on to his son, Ranbir, who will next be seen as Sanjay Dutt on screen. “I’m using his van so I can’t say anything wrong about him,” he says, adding that his van is still in Lucknow. “Everybody has been praising his film. Knowing Ranbir, the actor, he has hopefully done well,” papa says.