Profile | No pain, no gain
Television's superstar Ram Kapoor makes a bid for the movies, one patient step at a time
In 2005, Ram Kapoor was slim, fit, rakishly handsome, a movie actor, and altogether less successful. He had taken a break from television to appear in indies like Kal and Missed Call, which sank noiselessly in the popular imagination. Kapoor returned to television for the show Kasamh Se the following year, but he also let himself go in the bargain. He stopped watching what he ate and when. He ballooned outwards in all directions—and so did his career. It’s a measure of Kapoor’s popularity that he is being fielded for interviews for the forthcoming comedy Mere Dad ki Maruti.
In the 15 March release, the leading man from the hit television show Bade Acche Lagte Hain plays the father of an adolescent who misplaces the family car. A production of Yash Raj Films’ young audience division Y Films, Mere Dad Ki Maruti is packed with debutants and young actors, including the leads Saqib Saleem and Rhea Chakraborty and director Ashima Chibber. Kapoor plays “the worst kind of dad a young kid can hope to have", he says. “I am a nightmare, from his (the son’s) point of view. From my point of view, my son is an idiot."
The failure of his early movies did hurt the actor, who trained in the Stanislavski system at an acting academy in Los Angeles, US. “I was a bit disappointed," Kapoor says. “I kind of come from a school of thought, maybe it is my method training, where I fully realize how hard it is to make a career out of show business." It made more sense for him to be somebody on television rather than a toiler at cinema. “I fully understand how lucky I am because TV was always there for me, and I was getting to work," he says. “That feeling took over the disappointment."
Kasamh Se, in which Kapoor played business tycoon Jay Walia, took off so quickly once it started airing that his body had little time to react. “In 2005, I used to eat right, exercise right, work out," he says. “After I decided to come back to television, my work days went for a complete toss. I was working round the clock for 14-16 hours, I ate dinner at 1, lunch at 4. But I realized this was the time to not hold back but to put my effort into work all the way. It took a toll on my body and my personal life, but it has paid dividends in my work life."
Kapoor’s faith in television was vindicated with the success of Bade Acche Lagte Hain, in which he plays a businessman who agrees to an arranged marriage and discovers the true meaning of love. The centrepiece of the Balaji Telefilms production, which started airing in May 2011, is the slow-burning, old-fashioned romance between Kapoor’s character and his lady love, played by Sakshi Tanwar. Bade Acche Lagte Hain has transformed the portly actor into a most unlikely heart-throb (it helps that the show has a fair amount of television-friendly lip-locks and lovemaking). “Of course, I love the compliments, but when women say, you’re so hot, I don’t know what they are seeing that is hot," says Kapoor about his gentlemanly romantic.
Kapoor won’t stop headlining the show, but he wants to stack up some more film credits in the meantime. “I concentrate on my show, I give it 15 days a month," he says. “The other 15, I am trying to do a variety of cinema, to establish myself as a character actor like Boman Irani or Irrfan." His forthcoming films include the under-production Farhan Akhtar-Vidya Balan starrer Shaadi ke Side Effects.
“I am not in a hurry," Kapoor says. “It has taken me 10 years to come to the top of TV. I am willing to give myself the same 10 years. My calendar is packed, but I have a long way to go before I can establish myself. I want that five years from now, I will be seen in a similar kind of light the way Boman is today."
All this means some more juggling between two vastly different approaches to acting. “Television and cinema are very different and cater to different audiences," Kapoor says. “The approaches are different too—television is all about efficiency, speed and deadlines, you don’t have the luxury of time. When I am on a TV set, I have to be fast and efficient and I don’t have the time for discussion. On a film set, it is exactly the opposite—you can be creative and work things out. It is quite easy for me because I love what I do, which is why I can work so hard."
Mere Dad ki Maruti releases on 15 March.
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