Prashant Singh (HINDUSTAN TIMES; December 15, 2019)

She is yet to make her Bollywood debut, but Shanaya Kapoor has already hit headlines with her grand outing at the prestigious Le Bal des débutantes, Paris. And her father, actor-producer Sanjay Kapoor, can’t stop beaming. “The experience was unbelievable! I had heard it is spectacular and all, but once you experience it first-hand... It cannot be explained in words,” says Sanjay, who had the first dance with her at the opening of Le Bal.

The “proud dad” admits it was “very overwhelming” for him and so he “can imagine what it would have been like for Shanaya”. He says, “She looked stunning. When you are young and are part of something like this, you feel great, but when you grow older and look back, you realise the magnitude of it.”

Another high point for him was meeting “many wonderful people”, but the fanboy moment was meeting veteran French actor Jean Paul-Belmondo. “I’ve been his fan since my school days; he is like the Dilip Kumar of France,” he says. While Sanjay feels he was “too overwhelmed as a father with all of it,” he says Shanaya is more focused.

He says, “She is fortunate to have got such a prestigious thing so soon in her life, and she should cherish it. Now, she should work harder. She has got a great stepping stone. But even now, she is not flying high. She is young and can get carried away but I’m fortunate that she knows there is a long way to go. Her goal was not to reach Le Bal, her goal is to be in films and be a good actor. She is very focused that way.”

Shanaya, who is an assistant director on Janhvi Kapoor-starrer Gunjan Saxena biopic, hasn’t signed any films yet. “We are open to any good offer. I am waiting for the right film to come, I think she is ready now. She has already done a lot of training and is still working very hard to be absolutely ready [for the film debut],” he says.

Any plans to launch Shanaya?
I honestly feel, nobody can plan anyone’s career. Everybody has got their own destiny and they need to work hard for it. I’m not producing any films [for her]. Tomorrow, even if I produce a film, Shanaya might not suit the part. If I’ve a choice between making a film for her and she getting an outside film, I’d choose the latter because she can’t be mollycoddled. We are waiting for the right opportunity to come by.