July 22, 2017
Actor Kunal Kapoor says he channelises
his restless energy in acting.
The actor, who has worked with popular filmmakers like Rakeysh
Omprakash Mehra, Rahul Dholakia, Pradeep Sarkar and Gauri Shinde,
doesn't take up acting projects in bulk. Why is he so choosy?
Kunal told IANS here: "I get this complaint from well-wishers... 'Why
such less number of films?' But honestly, I always do films that I
believe in, and they are very few and far between. These days, my kind
of films are happening so, I am working quite a lot."
He added: "Since last year, so far, I have done some films. I did
‘Veeram', ‘Dear Zindagi', an English language film ‘The Noblemen',
‘Raagdesh' is coming and there are two more projects I will be working
on. So yes, it's quite an interesting phase of my career."
Starting as an assistant director with Mehra, Kunal made his Bollywood
debut with the film "Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities", directed by M.F.
Husain.
Talking about his true calling in acting, he said: "I was a restless
child from the beginning and I didn't know where to channelise that.
And then when I started assisting and working on a film set, I
understood that film is the platform…
"Even though I was an assistant director, most of the time I was in
front of the camera rehearsing with actors. Gradually, I realized that
I actually want to be in front of the camera, I want to be an actor. I
channelise my restless energy in acting."
Kunal is quite excited about "Raagdesh", in which he plays Major
General Shah Nawaz Khan of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National
Army.
Talking about the Red Fort trials, he said: "Isn't it quite shocking? I
mean how come we were not taught about an important part of our history
in school? It's really sad that our generation knows so little about
the Indian National Army that contributed to the Indian freedom
movement... nothing less than any other political parties or
individual."
"After reading the entire story, I felt there's a deliberate attempt to
wipe it out of our history books. It is unfortunate," said Kunal.
Kunal went the extra mile to get under the skin of the character. The
actor read up a lot on Major General Khan, met his grandson, spent time
with their family to get a better insight into his personality and
worked on an Urdu-Punjabi accent to capture a certain speaking style of
the 1940s' era.
What about his experience of working with the film's director Tigmanshu
Dhulia?
"I always wanted to work with Tishu sir (Dhulia), and the interesting
thing I have observed is that all actors perform well in his
film…Everyone acts the best in his film! You know why?"
"Because he is an amazing actor, director and writer. Being an actor,
he understands what exactly I need to know to perform the
character…it's a dream come true to work with him," said Kunal.
The story of "Raagdesh" revolves around three soldiers.
"I loved all the three characters in the film, whether it was Shah
Nawaz, Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon or Prem Sahgal, I love them all," he said.
"Tishu sir was looking for a combination of Amitabh Bachchan,
Dharmendra and Shashi Kapoor in these three characters. While Dhillon's
character played by Amit (Sadh) is an emotional man who is ready to
give his life for the country at any point of time, Sahgal is a little
romantic by nature like the image of Shashi Kapoor. Shah Nawaz is calm,
composed and intense," he added.
"Raagdesh" will release on July 28.