Shakun Batra’s Kapoor & Sons which clocks ten years on March 18, remains an important film for Dharma Productions. Rishi Kapoor was undoubtedly the show stopper and the scenestealer here.
Said Rishi, “I didn’t only have to look like an old man I also had to sound like one. It is easier said than done. I have to thank my director Shakun Batra for helping me with my voice modulation. I had to talk slowly like a 90-year old, but not too slowly because that would get boring for the audience. I managed to dub convincingly. But for my most important scene we have retained the live sound. It was impossible for me to get the same feelings and voice-modulation in the dubbing studio. So we retained my original lines for that scene, we just cleaned out the soundtrack.”
In a shocking confessional interview Rishi told this writer, “I didn’t have fun working for Shakun Batra in Kapoor & Sons. You see I worked for 30-32 days on this film. Not a single day passed when Shakun and I didn’t fight. It was not a creative fight. It was something else. We fought because I couldn’t agree with his method of working on my role. Shakun wanted to cover every shot of mine from many different angles. But I am old-school spontaneous actor. I couldn’t recreate the same expression several times over for every shot. I respect all schools of acting. But I am not a method actor. With every successive shot I lose my spontaneity. This new style of working where actors give the same shot repeatedly from different angles has gained acceptance because in the digital era no raw stock is wasted. Because they’ve the facility of editing a film on a digital platform they want more software. Thereby actors have turned into robots. That’s not my way of working. I always have an edited pattern in my mind for my performances. We were constantly arguing. I told him he had taken the wrong actor.”
Matters came to such a head between Rishi and his director that the actor was ready to quit. “I offered to leave the film at least twice. I informed Karan Johar I was leaving. Please understand this was a very difficult role. For 13 hours I had to wear the makeup and emote in contact lenses, etc. I couldn’t do every shot from many angles. It was easy for the kids — Alia, Siddharth, and Fawad as they don’t have any one particular style of working. Rajat Kapoor and Ratna Pathak Shah are from stage, they could do the same shot many times and yet make it look spontaneous. I was the odd one out. My spontaneity couldn’t be replicated over and over again. I’ve worked in 150 films. Ask the directors. They will tell you no two takes of mine are the same. I like to feel the lines. I emote with my heart. I respect method actors. But I am not one. We just fought every day. I sent a word to Karan Johar I will leave the film. I believe the same thing happened with my niece Kareena Kapoor when she worked with Shakun Batra in Ekk Main Aur Ekk Tu. She called Karan Johar from Las Vegas complaining about Shakun’s style of working.”
Of course it all worked out beautifully in the end. Rishi Kapoor prided himself for his performance as a 90-year man as one his career’s best. He had no clue at that time that he wouldn’t live to see 90 .
