Shabana Azmi talks about birthday boy Anil Kapoor and their equation...
Subhash K Jha (DNA; December 26, 2016)

Shabana Azmi and Anil Kapoor have been friends for decades. They have a healthy respect for each other. They have worked together, and it all started over four decades ago. On his 60th birthday a few days ago, she recalled their first meeting and more...

“I took an instant dislike to him when I first set eyes on Anil as he stepped out from the lobby of Holiday Inn... dressed in black drainpipes, red shirt with front buttons open, pulled-up collar...his posture crying out loud, “Look at me!” I reckoned he was a rich brat... a producer’s son... Kapoor attached to his surname, makes him expect everything on a platter.. I was horrified to learn that he had been cast in a bit role in my film Ek Baar Kaho and that I would have to suffer him for a month-long schedule in Darjeeling. I decided to keep him at an arm’s distance although as a matter of habit, I mingle very easily with my younger co-stars.

On set, I discovered that he was the opposite of the upstart I had expected him to be. He was hungry to learn and like a ticking battery, absorbed everything that was happening on the sets. The other youngsters in the film couldn’t wait to party as soon as pack-up was announced. Anil would hang around, hoping to catch favour with the director Lekh Tandon so that he could be given at least one scene on his own where he could make a mark. Oh! How he wanted that song that was picturised on Dilip Dhawan. To his complete envy, he didn’t get it, but he didn’t let his disappointment turn into disenchantment. He had trained under my acting guru Roshan Taneja and acting was his life’s blood. At the age of 10, he used to travel by bus all alone from Chembur to Peddar Road to take sitar lessons for a film called Tu Payal Main Geet in which he got to play the younger Shashi Kapoor. He earned my respect and we became friends.

He was so earnest, so committed, so vulnerable behind that cocky posture that my heart went out to him. Thirty-odd years later, my heart still goes out to Anil. He remains vulnerable with every new goal he attains. He wears his fame lightly with a wry sense of disbelief. “Let the world say what it wants,” he seems to say “I know how ephemeral success can be and so, I must never let up, never pause to take it easy, never rest on conquered laurels!” almost as if he needs to pinch himself to accept the extraordinary degree of success he has achieved.

He is driven as no other person I know in this profession and also has a sharp sense of making the right choices. Even at the height of his ‘herogiri’, he realised that if he had to guarantee longevity of career, he would need to bag roles that offered him an opportunity to play substantial characters beyond the routine song-and-dance numbers. After being celebrated universally in Mr India, he took a calculated risk in doing Lamhe. He did Eeshwar, Beta...roles that could have saddled him with a ‘vegetarian’ image, but he balanced these with a romantic 1942 A Love Story, a robust Ram Lakhan, a forceful Tezaab, full of every commercial ingredient that ensured box-office success. He had the canny sense to do No Entry after doing Slumdog Millionaire. Most would have gotten so carried away with international recognition and the Oscar that they would have turned their backs on ‘masala’ movies. Anil keeps his doors wide open. He is accessible to all. He does television, radio and now a web series...a step ahead of the times. When Priyanka Chopra was in two minds about whether she should do Quantico or not, it was Anil who pushed her to take the plunge. It is for all to see what a game changer that’s been for her. Anil has ensured that he will be around as an actor as long as he wants to. Success has become his handmaiden.

Has this changed Anil? There has been growth of course. He is more polished, is a much better public speaker... (he used to be tongue tied in his earlier years). He can make friends with Hollywood stars and Prime Ministers with aplomb, but at heart he remains the same. He is loyal, has the same circle of friends. His staff remains the same. He remains grateful for every kindness that came his way. On the sets of 24, he gave me his personal vanity van and shifted into a smaller one discreetly. He ensured that my every need was met and treated me like a queen... I was very touched.

The person Anil has become today has been largely shaped by Boney in the early years and after that by Sunita. She is his strongest pillar of support and keeps him firmly grounded. He is a surprisingly good father and an unexpectedly responsible family man for a person as self absorbed as he is. Sunita humours him but also ensures he doesn’t take himself too seriously. He can barely function without her. And confesses that he wants her to accompany him on every trip from because he needs her. Mercifully, he still has the ability to laugh at himself. Many a morning (we both get up early) he has called me and had me in splits over his creaking bones and the effort that goes into getting on that treadmill, in lifting those weights, in starving himself to project his youthful exterior. “Andar se sab gal chuka hai — kab chhutti milegi mujhe? Kab khana kha paaoonga?” he rues. Sunita is fanatic about fitness and keeps a tight rein on him. The Punjabi boy from Chembur now lives on salad, quinoa and dry fruit! Arrghhh...

It is rare to sustain friendships in the film industry. Ours has survived over 30-odd years and is spilling over into our childrens’ lives. I cannot explain the deep sense of fulfilment I experienced when Anil worked with Zoya or when I worked with Sonam or when Rhea worked with Javed or when Harsh worked with Saiyami. This is the stuff Hindi films are made of... friendships passing on to generations. How blessed we are...how thankful. I feel nostalgic and a bit sentimental. Lots of love wrapped up in a tear.

Happy birthday, AK. Jeete raho khush raho. Lage raho lage raho....

Shabana Azmi

(as told to Subhash K Jha)

Roshmilla Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 6, 2014)

Today, Eeshwar ranks high on Anil Kapoor’s list of favourite roles but back in the ’80s it took the actor a year to give his nod to the Hindi remake of K Vishwanth’s National Award winning 1986 Telugu film, Swathi Muthyam. Anil who was ruling the box-office with blockbusters like Karma, Mr India, Tezaab and Ram Lakhan had been signed by Vishwanath and Mallikarjun Rao. They had narrated a couple of scripts to him but none excited him. Then he saw a preview of Swathi Muthyam and it immediately sparked off his interest.

The film enjoyed a silver jubilee run down South. It was dubbed in Tamil as Sippikul Muthu, remade in Kannada as Swati Mutu and was India’s official entry for the Oscars in the Best Foreign Language category. Swathi Muthyam revolved around an autistic man who marries a destitute widow with a five-year-old son and surprises everyone by fulfilling his responsibilities as the man of the house.

Even though the role was challenging Anil was in two minds about doing it. Eeshwar started out as an old man and the actor who was in his early 30s was afraid it would go against his image. That was when, at his housewarming party, he met Raj Kapoor who urged him to accept the film telling him he believed Anil to be the best choice for the role.

Anil was surprised because he’s heard that Kapoor was keen on remaking the film in Hindi with Kamal Haasan, who’d played the role in the Telugu original, and writer-director K Vishwanath. It was only later that he learnt the deal between the trio had fallen through. Meanwhile, his brother Boney Kapoor saw Swathi Muthyam and urged Anil to do the film.

While Kamal had 120 films behind him when he did Swathi Muthyam, Anil's count stood at 20 when he started on Eeshwar. He still looked like a fresh-faced newcomer and this worked to his advantage when portraying the child-like simpleton. He had a muse in Raj Kapoor’s Awaara tramp.

As part of the prep, he visited the Dilkhush School in Juhu and spent two days there observing how the special children spoke and behaved. “They even sang for me. They’d seen Mr India and it was heartwarming how they responded to me,” he reminisced later.

Anil also interacted with the teachers and read up on autism but went on the sets with a mind which was a blank slate and surrendered completely to his director. “To his credit, Vishwanathji forgot the original, it was like he was making a new film with a fresh pair and that helped. Still, for the first two days of every schedule, I’d feel somewhat polluted. It would take a day to cleanse myself and then I’d become Eeshwar,” he admitted.

The character won him over completely and Anil later admitted that he’d never felt so happy enacting a role. He turned vegetarian, worked out twice a day and went to bed early. And soon Eeshwar’s sincerity and purity reflected on his face and was there for all to see. The film won him plenty of accolades and proved his versatility in a year that saw him playing the corrupt cop in Ram Lakhan, the avenging Karan in Joshilay and the Good Samaritan in Rakhwala. Twenty-five years later, Eeshwar’s stringed ektara still pulls at the heart-strings.