Anil Kapoor, who is currently gearing up for the release of his next project, an actioner titled Subedaar, which will be released on Prime Video on March 5, recently, graced the 12th edition of Expresso by SCREEN, where the superstar candidly spoke about a range of topics: from his growing insecurity as a star and his early lessons in acting from none other than Om Puri, to his working experience in seminal films like Mr India, Eeshwar, Nayak: The Real Hero, Welcome, Animal, among others things.
The session, hosted by Saurabh Dwivedi, Editor, Indian Express Hindi, saw Anil reminiscing about his father, who was a producer in his own time and once an assistant to K. Asif on Mughal-E-Azam. However, his father met with repeated failures, which prompted Anil to become a hero himself. “As a producer, it was very tough for him to get stars, leading men. Every film was a struggle. I have seen him go through very tough times, trying to manage the date situations of leading stars. And this made me think, ‘Why don’t I become a hero myself?’ So that my family doesn’t have to go outside to make films.”
He further shared that his ambition was deeply personal and emotionally driven. “I always need an emotional hook to delve myself into work. And here it was that I wanted to prove to my father that I can be a hero. I had seen him go through tough times, and production is a thankless job. It is a monumental task to get a film made. And unfortunately, none of his films were really successful. So that was my hook to become successful.”
Anil also spoke about his early days in the film industry and how Subhash Ghai’s Meri Jung completely changed things for him. “When I started my career, everyone used to tell me I’m a very English actor, I underplay a lot, I’m very real. So while shooting for the court scenes in Meri Jung, Subhash ji and the sound recordist came to me and said, ‘We can’t hear your dialogues.’ And I was like, I’m talking normally, just the way any of us would do, right? But Subhash ji said, ‘No, no, we are unable to hear you properly,’ and he told me, ‘Anil, this is a commercial film, you have to throw your voice.’ So I feel somewhere because of this, I I learnt how to be a mainstream commercial hero, I became more filmy.”
Anil Kapoor in conversation with Saurabh Dwivedi at Expresso.
While he spoke about delivering such a spirited performance, he also revealed his experience of working on Eeshwar, sharing that Dustin Hoffman’s performance in Rain Man deeply influenced him. “I was in love with that film and Dustin Hoffman’s performance. That was a great role, and I always wanted to play a similar character someday. He was par excellence; it was unreal. He won the Oscar for that film. So that was my inspiration.”
Talking more about his craft, and even now at the age of 69, Anil shared that the people who credit him for his infectious energy are actually pointing to what he believes is his biggest insecurity. “I feel it’s my insecurity. I want to work, I want to keep on acting, so if you see my energy, it’s all because I want to be seen. So I try that my energy comes from that. My real motivation is that I want to do good work. I want my director to be happy with me. I want to do my best in whatever capacity I have. So if you all think of it as energy or something, it might be some kind of insecurity, stemming from perhaps that I’m not good enough and there are better people. So I need to learn from them, and for that, I need the energy.”
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The conversation between Anil and Saurabh also touched upon the actor’s personal life, his relationship with his wife, her thoughts about his work, his dynamic with his daughters, and the preparation the actor undertook for a film like Subedaar.
The 12th edition of Expresso by SCREEN will be streamed live on the Indian Express YouTube channel today at 8 pm. The presenting partner of the event was AU Small Finance Bank, in association with The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai, Maharashtra.
About Expresso
The Expresso series has become a platform for thought-provoking conversations with some of the biggest names in Indian entertainment. Previous editions have featured celebrities like Huma Qureshi and Shefali Shah, Anupam Kher, Richa Chadha and Kabir Khan, Randeep Hooda and Hansal Mehta, Pankaj Tripathi, Kajol and Kriti Sanon, Javed Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar, Imtiaz Ali and Taapsee Pannu, and Vidya Balan and Pratik Gandhi.
