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Randhir Kapoor was known to think ahead of his times and yet when you meet the icon and the yesteryear star, you’ll find him rooted in his own set of values which still drive him through. With his film Super Nani releasing tomorrow, where the star will be seen playing Gorgeous Diva Rekha’s husband, the actor talks to Koimoi about the changing times and how adapting with the new change influx has come naturally to him.
Though he doesn’t understand a lot of things that happen today. Explaining the same, he said, “Aadmi ko waqt se aur haalat se sulah karni hi padti hai. But my mindset is different; I prefer those films (films of 70s and 80s) over these films. Films then used to have a great soul. Now we just have terrific looking film. But there is no soul in films now-a-days. There is hardly a story either. Films now are made on incidents. Stories are evolving over the years but they were stories, afterall. There were crime thrillers and Teesri Manzil, a very favorite film of mine, happens to be one of them. Don’t get me wrong because I agree a few films these days are really good but by and large I feel those films are very selective. I like Aamir’s work and Rajkumar Hirani’s film, even Vicky Donor was a good film because it doesn’t make cheap jokes, was feel good and had a story afterall. But then there are films which has just body to it, all are glossed up item numbers.”
His hit pair with Pancham Da was legendary and he admits that the same spark is missing from Bollywood’s music scenario as well. Explaining the same, he added, “I don’t understand today’s music either. Every singer today sounds alike. The last one I remember is Sonu Nigam but after that generation, the melody has vanished from the music world, instruments have been replaced by technology. Orchestra is too much. I do feel that I may be wrong but my taste is different and doesn’t fit in here.”
While the root cause of it is evident to all, the heirs of RK banner understand it from a first hand experience. They have worked in times when producers were passionate investors and weren’t creating look alike matchboxes. Blaming and praising the corporate structure of the film industry in the same breath, Mr Kapoor elaborated, “Today there is so much money in the business that no director wants to work for anybody. A good story and a good actor is not the prerequisites anymore. Me and Rishi were once drinking and Ranbir came over to tell us about a terrific script he wanted to sign. That was Barfi. He had said, ‘thoda risky hai’ about the film. The hero is deaf and dumb and such stories find hard to get a single individual producer. A corporate firm, UTV had to produce it. But the problem is the passion of ownership of a film has gone. Corporate doesn’t have an owner. With this, more money has come into the frame but still I feel I wish I were young and working now. Work then would pay for home fires and children’s tuition fees. But now actors are getting so much money that they do just one film a year. There is money from ads, shows, wherever they touch, they get money. And hence there won’t be another Raj Kapoor in this generation.”
And yet, the young Kapoors are making them proud, holding up the family mantle strongly. Randhir beams with happiness and exclaims, “The kids in our family have done so well for themselves and all on their own. A Raj Kapoor ka beta and Randhir Kapoor Ki beti can only get their first chance easily but beyond that they have to make their name and fight their battles. You have to come up on their own. Alot of actors managed to come up because of their parents and I don’t want to take names but you have to win the hearts of your audiences on your own. Shah Rukh Khan was no star son but manage to do all on his own.”
A lot of yesteryear personalities don’t exactly approve of the business minded approach towards art and cinema. Randhir Kapoor is one of them. A fan of his father’s Shree 420 and Awara, he still vouches that what rolls him inside films is still the love of them. And he is fortunate that he has kids richer than him. He signs off with a wink, “I ask Kareena to adopt me. She is richer than me!”
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