Versatile actor Shahid Kapoor, known for delivering genre-defying performances in films such as Haider, Udta Punjab, Kabir Singh, and Farzi, recently opened up about the philosophy that guides his choice of roles. In a candid conversation on Prakhar Ke Pravachan, Shahid shared how a reflection by Hollywood icon Leonardo DiCaprio reshaped his own outlook on character selection. “I read a very interesting interview of Leonardo DiCaprio where he said if ‘I read a script for the first time and when I know what’s to be done with the character I say no, because it’s within my comfort zone, when I don’t know what to do is when I am interested’, I found it very interesting that it must be outside your comfort zone. Sometimes I’m able to do it, sometimes may be I’m not but that’s an inherent desire to be able to climb a new peak and not to go back climbing same peak because I can climb it, it’s about exploration and that fear of the unknown.”
The actor further shed light on how this philosophy reflects in his forthcoming film O’ Romeo, directed by Vishal Bhardwaj. “With Vishal sir it’s always a journey. Having said, that you have to find and look for ways to doing something new because what’s written is written by the writer and if its’s written differently…. If I perform it the way I always perform it will seem different as fundamentally it’s written differently. So, you’ll receive it as a story first, which also happens with a lot of actors that they do similar acting and do different stories across different genres so they look like they’re doing different work. But there are actors who’ll take the same genre and then do it differently. See that’s actually your craft as you’re bringing something new to it – which is very exciting and interesting to me.”
With O’ Romeo marking his fourth collaboration with Vishal Bhardwaj, Shahid Kapoor continues to push boundaries and embrace roles that challenge him creatively—embodying his belief in stepping beyond comfort zones to bring something fresh to the audience every time.
