The actor, an adventure junkie who started flying seven years ago, also enjoys car-racing and surfing
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 19, 2018)

Taking his love for adventure a notch higher, Kunal Kapoor took off to Abu Dhabi in September to enjoy the joys of car-racing, and to Bhopal towards the end of October for some flying sessions and then it was Sri Lanka and surfing during Diwali. “Life is short and unpredictable so one should try and experience everything that fascinates you. I started flying and racing long ago, surfing though is a new addition when I was in Sri Lanka earlier this year and went back recently for a few more training lessons. It’s exhausting but I’m finally getting the hang of it and spending more time on the board than of it,” laughs the actor.

Kunal started flying around seven years ago at the Chimes Aviation Academy in Sagar. Since then, he has kept going back there whenever he got the chance. “My first flying instructor used to refer to himself as a part of a suicide prevention squad. He would say when students start flying, it’s like they are in a hurry to crash the plane and his job is to prevent that from happening,” he reminisces.

Cars and racing are two of his lifelong passions and admits he learnt how to drive way before he was of age. In 2010, Kunal started training at a rally school on the outskirts of Mumbai and then in Manali. More recently, he drove Formula 3 racing cars in Abu Dhabi and even managed a couple of sessions with a trainer who used to be a part of Michael Schumacher’s team. “All these require a lot of concentration and complete immersion as it’s just you and the machine. I find that level of focus and involvement meditative,” Kunal muses, stating matter-of-factly that it’s a little late for him to take up any of these professionally, but given a chance, he would have loved to be a race car driver. “Even to incorporate some of these skills while working on a film would be a dream come true. I was offered a script which had a lot of car racing years ago but unfortunately things didn’t fall into place,” he sighs.

He flashbacks to 1986 when the American action-drama Top Gun had released. “Every boy wanted to be an Air Force pilot and get a crew cut like Tom Cruise. A line from the film, ‘I feel the need… need for speed’ had become my takiya qalam. I have forgotten the number of times I have watched Days of Thunder and Rush. Point Break, which is about surfing, is my another favourite, the ultimate edge-of-the-seat, testosterone-infused bromance with some great action sequences. I can’t wait to do a film like that,” Kunal signs off. 

Kunal Kapoor reveals that he’s been working on scripts of four fi lms and a show; discusses how he mastered the game of hockey and took on bullies for a new film
Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 31, 2018) 

Kunal Kapoor’s Independence Day release, Reema Kagti’s sports drama Gold, sees him in the role a hockey player from the team that brought home the first gold medal for India as an independent nation in the 1948 Olympic Games in London. The 38-year-old actor admits that while he has watched the sport for years, training in it was a different ballgame altogether.

“I hadn’t played hockey before and it was exciting to learn something new. We trained with Michael Nobbs, the ex-coach of the national team, along with Sandeep Singh, a former captain. I’ve always been into fitness, but hockey requires a different set of skills, hand-eye coordination and plenty of stamina,” explains Kunal who trained for four months in Mumbai and a month in London, admitting that the first few weeks were difficult, but it got better as they went along. “We would train every morning from 7am to around 9.30am and my respect for hockey players has gone up after being on the field.”

The actor jokingly describes his co-stars as a “bratty bunch”, pointing out that Akshay Kumar as the team manager on screen and the leader of pranksters off camera balances work with fun and tries to make the shoot a breeze. “Acting needs a fine balance and that is something Akshay sir has mastered. During breaks, we’d play cricket or football and after pack-up, volleyball. Besides the actors, we had another 16 players training with us and the bonding was incredible. It was like the camaraderie during Rang De Basanti.”

The weather in London was a challenge with the sunny day suddenly turning cloudy and a shower bringing in a sharp fall in the temperature and necessitating a change in the on-set lighting. However, despite the hurdles, Kunal is all for sports biopics and is glad so many are being made. “I’m obsessed with what happened 250 years ago and would love to make an action period film from the time. I got a chance with Veeram, a desi Macbeth, but I want to push the envelope further. I have done dramas and slice-of-life films. Now, it’s time to explore an out-and-out romantic film, a comedy and an action thriller,” he says.

His next film, Noblemen, is a tryst with Shakespearean drama again. “I’m teaching The Merchant of Venice in the film and it rolls out like the play too, touching on the subject of bullying and how it affects the mindset of children. It also looks at students coming to terms with their sexuality. It is a brave film exploring topics that are usually pushed under the rug,” informs the actor who when he is not facing the camera is working at his tech company, writing scripts or racing cars.

Sharing his passion for racing, he reveals that he’s obsessed with fast cars and has trained at a rally school outside Mumbai. “I took part in a vintage rally in Europe and a couple of years ago, even trained in Formula 3 racing in Abu Dhabi. This year I’m planning to take time off to train at a school in Manali run by a famous rally driver,” he shares.

He is also dabbling in another passion, working on four film scripts and one show simultaneously. “Writing comes naturally to me, I started with writing notes to myself, then dabbled in some bad poetry which improved after a while, then moved to short films. The first script I co-developed was Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana. Now, I have my hands full with five projects one of which should roll early next year. It’s an ensemble cast, a slice-of-life comedy set in Varanasi. I’m also working on a biopic and a coming-of-age story of three guys. The fourth script is based on a true incident,” he reveals, reasoning that sometimes you don’t get scripts of your choice and instead of waiting it’s better to develop characters that challenge you. “In this industry people are quick to put you in a box, it’s important to break out just as quickly.”

Garima Sharma (BOMBAY TIMES; October 15, 2014)