Pankaj Kapur (61) & Supriya Pathak Kapur (54)

Still remembered for their work on TV, these masters of cinema are now launching a theatre company
Kunal Guha (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 10, 2016)

Pankaj Kapur and wife Supriya Pathak Kapur have found a new excuse to spend time together. Next Sunday, the couple will be launching their theatre company Theatreon. At NCPA, they will stage their first production Dopehari, a dramatic reading of a novella Pankaj had written 20 years ago. Pankaj will helm the solo, while Supriya handles production. "It's about this old woman from Lucknow called Amma Bi, and her journey from being petrified, lonely and scared to someone who realises her own worth. We see her life's events, the characters in it, and at 65, she discovers herself," Pankaj explains. Sitting at his Yari Road office, he is animated, almost childishly.

Pankaj's inspiration behind Dopehari isn't known, but Supriya distinctly remembers the events that led to its writing. "At the time, Pankaj used to tell me and my brother-in-law about his grand plans of writing something and we'd then rag him and say, 'Creativity aise thode hi nikal aati hain'. Then one day, he just went into this room and shut himself for four days and in the end, he had written this novella," smiles the actress, who earned theatrical acclaim after essaying crucial roles in plays such as Mena Gurjari and Biwiyon Ka Madrassa. Unsure of how audiences will soon respond to his writing, Pankaj says he's only testing waters for now. "The idea is to test the writing and see if it works. Then, in the future, one might even be tempted to attempt playwriting afresh so that we have contemporary plays," says the actor.

While the urge to return to a beloved medium is undoubtedly the driving force behind their latest collaboration, the Kapurs have, in the past, also intentionally mixed their personal and professional lives. "When we produced Mohandas B.A.L.L.B for our banner, Grace Films, we consciously wanted our marriage to be cemented. If Supriya was shooting in Jaipur and I was shooting in Hyderabad, we wouldn't have time to see each other or the kids. So, we decided to team up. I became the writer, director and actor. Supriya doubled up as executive producer and actor. Our kids would drop in. They'd study on the sets. We'd be together," recalls Pankaj.

Having acted in over 75 plays in 15 years after he graduated from the National School of Drama, the thespian says he is open to all genres and adds that he also plans to hold acting workshops under his new flagship. When asked about why the Kapurs had stayed away from the stage for the last two decades, Pankaj confessed to being "petrified". Supriya reveals that despite having starred in about 50 films, her husband still treats every film like it was his first. "We know that if he's beginning a film, we should leave him alone three days prior to a shoot."

It soon comes to light that the more obvious reason for the couple's theatrical return is again familial. Their younger son Ruhaan recently returned from London after having completed a course in theatre. He would share his experiences with his parents and passionately talk about the highs of being on stage. Pankaj, though, insists his son is yet to join the family business. "He doesn't want to be a part of it right now. He feels he needs to train himself a lot more before he faces the audience. My daughter Sanah is already an actress. So they will all join us at some point but let them talk about it when they feel they're ready," he adds.

Having acted in popular plays such as Ek Ruka Hua Faisla and Chopra Kamaal Naukar Jamaal, Kapur remembers the time when he left the medium to write and act in films and TV. "Not much has changed in theatre since I left it. I began my career with theatre but when I came to Mumbai and tried to work in the field, I came across people who had little commitment and would leave when they got work in TV. I've actually had a co-actor not turning up before a show at Prithvi," remembers the actor about the medium which had "no money". But today, he turns to it for the "instant gratification" that performing in front of a live audience offers and not to make ends meet. "We're doing it for passion but we don't want to be foolhardy and not be self-sufficient. If we want to stage a big production next, we should be able to support it without having to borrow," he says.

In their second innings on stage, the Kapurs were stunned by the new challenges that plague today's plays. Rising costs, overbooked auditoriums and thin margins were only the beginning. "Back then, you would get the theatre for the grand rehearsal from the morning on the day of a show and you weren't charged for it. Now if you book a four-hour-slot, you get the theatre only two hours prior to the show. If you need more time to set up the lights or for rehearsals, you have to book three slots and pay thrice the amount, and this hikes the production budget. This is creatively limiting," laments Pankaj. The actor feels that since he's selective with the kind of films he does today, he has time at hand to invest in his passion for writing. "We don't want to work too much now," says Supriya.

Despite being anxious about the audience's reaction, Pankaj is somewhat sanguine about the future. "The film industry in 100 years hasn't been able to define what will be commercially viable, so how can we? Whatever you do, do it to the best of your ability. If it appeals to the audience, both in terms of content and form, they will come to see it," concludes Pankaj.

Priya Gupta (BOMBAY TIMES; July 1, 2014)

Supriya Pathak Kapur, 52, is loving, simple and spiritual. While she is a Radha Soami follower, her nucleus is her husband and her three children. While she loves her husband Pankaj Kapur the most in the world, she is reluctant to admit it, as she knows her kids will tease her about it. Over an hour-long conversation, ahead of her upcoming film Bobby Jasoos, she talks to Bombay Times about her neglected childhood, her near-perfect husband and why she misses her mother Dina Pathak today. Excerpts:

Let's talk about your family background.
My father Baldev Pathak was a Punjabi and mother, Dina Pathak, a Kathiawadi Gujarati. His tailoring shop `Shriman' at Apollo Bunder at the Gateway of India was very famous as he designed for Rajesh Khanna and Dilip Kumar sahab. So the famous Rajesh Khanna guru kurta and his entire style of clothing was designed by him. He chose to call himself India's first designer. Actually woh darzi hi they, but he never knew how to cut. But he used to do it and do it very well and it worked. My mother was a top Gujarati theatre artiste and I was told that for one of her plays Mena Gurjari, there would be long queues in Ahmedabad from 4 in the morning for buying tickets. She later shifted to films as she felt that she could not remember her theatre lines. She met my father through theatre. My mother had always been a working woman and so she would drop me to my mama's house everyday for the whole day since it was close by. So I spent most of my time with them and am also very attached to them.

My parents were both very social and would have parties at home all the time. I was a very shy and introverted person, so much so that whenever we had parties in our house, I would shut the lights in my room and sit so that no one would be able to see me. I didn't want to be with people.

I was quite old school and religious, keeping all my fasts and would prefer to spend my time in temples. My father was a bad businessman. He got into wholesaling that did not work. This was around the same time that Rajesh Khanna's films had also started not working and my father lost the place where Shriman was located, which had been a rented place. My dad died suddenly at just 52 due to a heart attack. I was only 17 then.

How did you get into films?
Supposedly I was told that my mother started crying when I was born feeling that doosri ladki aa gayee. But my father said, `Don't be stupid, laddoo baato.' My mother might have probably been concerned about what people would say, even though she was otherwise a Communist, emancipated and liberated. I feel that communists, Marxist people have a double standard, where they show something outside and have another face inside. My dad overdid the whole thing of me being a girl and was truly fond of me. Till my dad was there, I was extremely protected and happy. Everyone in my family felt that I anyways can't do anything in my life, so they only hoped that I should find a boy and get married. They didn't think that I had the capacity, as, unlike my older sister Ratna didi (Ratna Pathak Shah), I was neither good in studies nor in extracurricular. In comparison they all felt iska hoga kya? Bas ghar achcha mil jaye. But when my father died, it was a big shock, so much so that I changed 360 degrees. My thought towards God changed and I started questioning life. Around the same time, I had to start working also as that was a kind of necessity as my father had left some debts. Ratna didi was studying at NSD and I didn't want to be a burden on my mother. I had luckily done an amateur play with my mother, which she had directed for me. Everyone wanted her to do it with Ratna didi, but it had a strong religious connotation and so she wanted me to do it. It caught on and made news as it was the first time Dina Pathak had revived Mena Gurjari, that too with her daughter. I was doing a play at Prithvi when Jennifer and Shashi Kapoor saw me and recommended me to Shyam Benegal for Kalyug. Shyam babu was not interested in me at all, but they took a liking to me and I got my first role in Kalyug.

Talk about your relationship with your mother Dina Pathak?
I don't know whether I really grudged her, but I do remember that she was not really there when I needed her. That feeling remained with me for a very long time. When I look back, I don't blame her as she always wanted to work. But at that time, I would feel that, as every morning we were packed off to my mama's house. She was doing a job and theatre and films and was constantly working. We had bais at home and that is normal today, but in those days it wasn't or may be I felt it that way. It never disturbed Ratna, but it disturbed me, so may be that was my reaction to it. Ratna felt that she was very happy and had mom every time. But that is a sort of contrast in our feeling at a certain point in time. I was very attached to my father and was my father's pet. He just loved me. My mother died many years after my father when she was 80.

Talk about your marriage to Pankaj Kapur?
I wanted to finish my Ph.D in competitive dance and moved to Ahmedabad for a few months, where I met one of my mother's friend's son and we got married. I was only 22 then. Within a week of our marriage, we both knew that we had made a mistake and I moved back to Mumbai and we separated peacefully within a year. When I was about 24, I met Pankaj in a film that we were doing together. Surprisingly, that film never got released and we laugh till date that it was only made to make us meet. We both did not know the status of both of us having separated from our respective spouses by that time. But, gradually, we realised that we were not happy in our marriages and were open to new relationships and some how it just happened. I had thought he is happily married and didn't want to trouble any other person and I suppose he too thought like that. Even once our divorce came through, we wanted to make sure that we did not repeat our first mistakes. Also Pankaj's main concern was how Shahid (Kapoor) would react to me and therefore, wanted to give it time. We were together for two years, after which we got married.

What is Pankajji like?
I am not saying this because I am his wife, but he is one of the most fabulous human beings I have ever met. Be it his relationships, his attitude towards work, life in general, his family or towards his house, he would get almost 9 out of 10 marks. He is an extremely sincere man who doesn't know how to lie. I am in awe of the kind of balance he tries to find in life. I have become a very different person after meeting him and am now more secure as a person. I never had the desire to be the best actress, but I just wanted to work to earn money and not be a burden earlier on my mother and now on Pankaj. But because of him I now find my profession beautiful and enjoy the craft of acting as he loves it. I would rather adjust, but Pankaj too has become mellow now versus earlier when he was quite strong-headed. Between us, he is more successful and dominating and I listen to him, as he always makes sense. I used to crave for my father's love, but I think Pankaj being seven years older to me gave that love also to me except of course that he did not pamper me as much. I am possessive about him and love him too much. And all three of my children accuse me of all the time taking his side.

What does he like about you?
I think my basic goodness towards others and the fact that I am not demanding. He knows that he doesn't need to do something for me.

You were both nominated for your performances in Ram Leela and Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola but only you got an award. Did you feel bad?
Honestly, I did. He didn't feel it at all. And he genuinely felt that I should get it. He was elated just getting a nomination for Filmfare. But I definitely feel that he deserved it. If he wouldn't have deserved it I wouldn't have felt it.

Talk about Shahid Kapoor?
My motherhood has been the best period of my life. I met Shahid first when he was six. He was a gussewala bachcha. But otherwise he was a very warm child and somehow we took to each other immediately. I didn't have to insist on anything and he didn't push me for anything. Like Pankaj, he is again a very good human being in all aspects and has a clean heart. He is a clean boy. I feel that I have Pankaj in three ages - at 60 as himself, at 33 as Shahid and now with my younger son Ruhaan at 20.

Any thoughts at this stage of your life?
Ratna didi and I did not have a great relationship when we were young. I think we became closer after my mom went. There was this one person who worked with the both of us and said, `Ek suraj hai toh doosri chand. That one was the fire and this one the cold water.' And it is like that. Even though she is not my anchor, I am very attached to her. I realise that I can't do without her even though she is not a part of my everyday life. It's very strange but as I am growing older I am missing both my parents. I am missing my mother and her presence and wish that I had a house to go to, somebody whose house I could just go to and not bother about anything.