Ranbir Kapoor on breaking from his usual mould of boy-next-door with masala entertainer Shamshera

Shamshera  marks Ranbir Kapoor ’s return to big screen after four years in a drastically different avatar; his last theatrical release was Rajkumar Hirani’s Sanju which was a huge box office success. So far Kapoor has been mostly seen in coming-of-age films, and it has taken 15 years for the actor to take the plunge in an out-and-out masala action entertainer and he says, “I always wanted to do a mass entertainer. But I had to build that confidence and conviction of the audience to take that next step for them to like me, to accept me.”  _Shamshera_  is set in the 19th century in the fictitious city of Kaza in India. The film narrates the story of a warrior tribe, which is imprisoned, enslaved, and tortured by a ruthless authoritarian general Shudh Singh (played by Sanjay Dutt). Besides living with the excitement of two back-to-back releases – Shamshera and Brahmastra, the charismatic actor is thrilled in his personal life as he awaits fatherhood. In a freewheeling and candid chat, Kapoor, who is never the one to shy away from taking jokes at himself, opens up on his privileged background and shedding the star-son tag, the current dominance of South cinema, wanting to play a villain, doing a sports biopic, impending fatherhood and much more. Backed by Aditya Chopra under his production house Yash Raj Productions, Shamshera is slated to release on 22 July in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu. Excerpts from the interview: You are known to be a subtle actor and not that loud in your face performer, so how challenging was it to portray a fierce dacoit in your upcoming Shamshera? Yes, you are right, the kind of actor I am, I am a subtle, new-age actor as they call but it is important for an actor to understand the tone of the film. Every film has a different tone. My last film Sanju had a certain tone, the tone that I used in Barfi or_Wake Up Sid_ that I can’t use in Sanju. Similarly, Karan Malhotra’s film has a very different tone which is very difficult because it comes with a lot of conviction, if you don’t have that conviction then it will look very dheela. I am very nervous because I don’t know, I am not sure if the audience will accept me in this kind of a role. But I had a lot of fun and it was very exciting for me to play the part as an actor. Tell us something about the film and the story? And for the lead actor it can be a very daunting task to take the film to this grand level … Shamshera is about this person who becomes the leader, the strength to save his tribe at any cost. Shamshera becomes a cult. You may think that the protagonist is a dacoit and we have that line in the title – karam se dacait, dharam se azaad but the film is beyond that. What is the emotion and thought behind that, what do they want to achieve in life, what they are going through…all this is shown in an entertaining way. It is a very new presentation. But it has been such a hard part because there was action, working in tap tapati dhoop, director dhool udaa raha hai … There were a lot of rehearsals, a lot of bruises, a lot of broken bones, a lot of sprains in the back. Then, I had to wear a beard and wig for the father’s role, clothes were thick khadi - the milieu of the film was so different and I was not prepared for all this when I signed the film. When I heard the story it all sounded great but when I had to execute and perform hawa tight ho gayi. I would abuse the director every day in my mind. I would talk to myself in the mirror saying, ‘Main kahan phas gaya, what am I doing?’ It was genuinely very physically and emotionally draining for me. But eventually the intention was to make a larger-than-life spectacle and for that you require this kind of hard work. But I was not prepared for this film in any aspect, I was doing whatever Karan Malhotra had envisioned.   This is your first period action film and you are also playing a double role for the very first time. What attracted you to the subject? The script inspired me. When I was offered this film I was offered only the role of Balli because they were considering someone else to cast for the role of Shamshera, the father. But I offered myself to play Shamshera and I said, ‘Baap-bete ka rishta hai, so it will be okay if the same actor plays’. The selfish actor in me came out because it was such a good part and opportunity for me. These are two different characters and personalities so it is obvious that as a performance also you had to give both of them different shades which were very challenging. You have completed 15 years in the industry and this is the first time that you are playing a quintessential filmy hero. You must have been offered action entertainers in the past … I have been offered films of this nature but this genre is the most difficult one. We take Hindi commercial films for granted thinking we can make anything in the name of masala potboilers and tell the audience to leave their brains at home and come to watch. You can’t be part of those films anymore, today the audience is not forgiving, they want something that is new, novel and amazing. I am very grateful that the makers considered me for this multi-genre film where you are getting to do action, comedy, romance, drama. I am playing the hero and that too, both, father and son. So far, I have more or less played a coming-of-age character, or who is always the under hero, or the struggles and the conflict has always been inner. For the first time there is a villain opposite me, I have never had a villain in any of my films. But the film’s director really taught me and helped me understand what conviction means and whatever it is it will show on screen. Now we have films like RRR and KGF …look at the sequences, look at the idea, it has so much of the conviction of the directors, of the actors that the audience loves and wants to go with it. Being a new-age actor, being someone who has a little evolved taste in cinema there are certain lines or expressions that you feel you are above it and you don’t want to do it but you shouldn’t shy away from giving what the audience wants.   So, is this the right time to release Shamshera considering engaging, larger-than-life films are working at the box office? Yes, we are in such times where you need to give the audience an X-factor which pulls them into the cinema otherwise they have many other mediums of entertainment. How do you reinvent each time with each character that you play, say in Barfi, Rockstar, Jagga Jasoos  …and now Shamshera? Firstly it is your choice, your experiences as an actor, the director, the script and the hard work and that is why I guess my films take a lot of time because it takes time for me to really understand the director’s mind and understand the script. When you are doing something on screen it should look real and believable. Today the Hindi film hero has changed, right? Back then my father used to tell me that out of six to eight releases a year four films would be on lost and found. But back then the audience was more forgiving, today you have cinema from all over the world, South films have made a huge market, you have Hollywood films. So, you really have to be wise in what you choose and know your country, people and cultures, you can’t make films for yourself; you have to make films for an audience so I believe in working with people who are making films for an audience. There are a lot of times I have worked with directors and I got a lot of appreciation for those films but I realised those films the director was making for himself, it was a personal film. Filmmaking is such an expensive medium, you can’t afford to make it for yourself. Entertaining the audience is most important, so that is a great learning I have had in the past few years. You have hinted through one of your videos that you would like to work with S S Rajamouli, do you approach filmmakers if you are keen on working with them? No, I have never ever done that, I am too shy to do that. But I have been blessed with the fact that so far good filmmakers have offered me good parts. But Rajamouli sir is somebody who I respect and admire a lot. I love his movies. He is somebody who knows his audience and I would love to be part of his films. Your father always wanted you to do commercial films and at times he didn’t appreciate your choice of films … When I started working and even though I come from a film family, I wanted to do things in my individual way and do films that I could relate to. Maybe when I did Wake Up Sid, Barfi, Rockstar, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani…I could relate to these films. My dad would watch my films and say, ‘Tu acting toh theek karta hai but try and do more commercial films’, he always had this complaint with me. But I myself was not convinced to do such films. If Shamshera had come to me 10 years back I don’t think I would have had the conviction to pull off a character like this. Just that Shamshera has come at a time when my father is not there to see it. Hopefully he is up there and smiling that finally I have done a film of his choice. How do you react to being called the privileged one? Yes, you get opportunities very early in life because you belong to a privileged category but I know how hard I worked in the last 15 years to get rid of the tag of star son because I didn’t want to be the shadow and I had a very large shadow of a lot of members of my family. So it was very important for me to do the kind of films that I did which is creating my own identity. But I have been really lucky because I started out my career at a certain time when a lot of filmmakers were writing films for young boys. Before me there were men, even Hrithik Roshan was playing a man. But when I started working, me and Imran Khan, we started around the same time and there were stories to tell of young boys. I got to work with good filmmakers, I played some interesting characters and that kind of sailed me through. Can we say you are in the best phase of your life right now? You got married, soon you will embrace fatherhood, there is a back-to-back release with Shamshera  and Brahmastra followed by a couple of more interesting projects? Movies are important, they will come and go but yes, your personal life …getting married, becoming a parent, I don’t think there is any bigger joy than that. I am having a release after four years, so there is a lot of my own anticipation of how these films will be received. I have worked for the last four years on these films. Last two years have been very difficult for all of us, I also lost a parent. There have been lots of ups and downs and such is life. Now everybody is feeling I am going through a good phase but again there could be a bad phase, then again good … You have to be balanced and take life as it comes. Weren’t you anxious with no release of yours in the last four years? Do you think you missed out on the digital space during the pandemic and lockdown period considering the OTT reach is humongous? No, not all, I am not anxious or worried. I think I am gifted with the quality of patience, I am a very patient person, I don’t feel insecure. I knew I was working on two films – Shamshera and Brahmastra which required that much time. Also, we had a personal setback with my father falling ill and a lot of time went in his treatment, going to America …Then we were hit by the pandemic. So, I don’t really blame anybody. But now onwards I have a lot of films coming out. I also have Luv Ranjan’s next, and Animal. So there is going to be quite an influx of me on screen. How do you look at the OTT platform? It is great. You can showcase films of a certain nature on OTT and where you don’t have the pressure of box office collection. But when you make a film like Shamshera you want a box office collection and you cannot release it on OTT because it is made for a collective audience. But, talking about my own films, if I have to release Barfi or Tamasha, I am not sure if it will work in theatres, probably people would like to see these in the comfort of their homes. Today it is all about audiences’ choice, we as makers are the slaves to the audience. Your job is to give them content. You have two back-to-back releases in a span of three months. Do you feel the performance of one film will impact the audience’ reception to the other one? It can happen but I didn’t plan this. But these are two very different films and I would like to believe that films are above me. Yes, I am part of both these worlds but the stories and the films that they are will speak more than just the fact that there is a common actor. It is not the ideal thing to have two films releasing so close to each other. But now both the trailers are out and the audience also knows about both the films. I am just keeping my fingers crossed that both work and life will be great. And if they don’t it is fine. Both your upcoming films have got delayed, how do you think it will impact you as an actor? It tests my patience but it is not in my hands. I am not that kind of an actor who puts a gun to the director’s head and says – ‘I have only so many dates, just finish the shoot’. Where Brahmastra’s delays are concerned, when we started the film we were not prepared for the animal that it was. It had too many special effects, the story was such…we were learning as we were making it but the intention of every film of mine, the ones I have produced or not, is to make it to the best of its capability. We were never lazy; we have always been working. Lots of reshoots happen sometimes and there is nothing wrong in that because eventually the audience will see the end product. Whether you have shot for 100 days, 200 days or 40 days, your product has to be good. But I don’t think Shamshera is delayed. I heard about the film in 2018, we shot it for 140 days and we had no reshoots. Our producer is very precise on where his money is going. It is not that Karan had a field to play and make a Mughal-e-Azam. You said you are looking forward to more challenges. Will you be adding more action-oriented massy badass entertainers in your filmography? Every film has its destiny, if you go and see a film like 3 Idiots to a Bajrangi Bhaijaan to a Dangal, these are not really action-oriented but the heart is in the right place. A story well told in an engaging way will garner a large audience. It is not necessary that only action films do well but yes it is a genre that I haven’t tried so it was very important that I dabble into something like this. As far as my choices are concerned, of course, I want to do every type of film, every genre so that I don’t get bored of myself and don’t let the audience get bored of me. After Shamshera and Brahmastra I have Luv Ranjan’s feel good romantic comedy family film, it is hilarious. Animal is probably the most shocking character I ever got to play in my career. Nobody would expect me to play a part like that which has shades of extreme grey. These are all risky films, these are not sure shot films and I have always been excited doing something big but at the same time there is an element of risk because if you really want to hit it big in life and make a difference you have to take that risk. Now just because I am doing Shamshera that doesn’t mean I have left the kind of films I did earlier. But I really want to do a negative role, I want to play a villain, a villain without a back story. How about doing a sports biopic, and attempting a horror comedy? I would love to do a sports biopic, it is a genre that I am very passionate about. I myself am a big sports enthusiast. I wish I could find a good football biopic since I am a very big football fan but nothing has been offered to me yet. Horror comedy genre is something very exciting, it is untapped. I think Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 recently really encapsulated that genre in a brilliant way. I have seen the film and it was terrific entertainment. So that genre is great but again I have not been offered anything in that space. Lastly, your thoughts on fatherhood … I am not prepared for fatherhood but I am thrilled, I am excited, I can’t describe the real feeling inside me. There is a lot of excitement, nervousness, I am terrified also. Alia and I have been talking about having children since we met. We want to have lots of children…(laughs). Till the day it happens I don’t know how it is going to be but I am just so excited. I have never experienced this emotion in my life, this is one emotion that completely fills your heart. Alia and I have been also talking about how we are going to share our responsibilities and time. We grew up with the generation of fathers who were not around as they were busy with their work. We have been brought up by our mothers but I want to have a different dynamic with my children, I want them to be close to me also. Alia is a very busy star and I don’t want her to sacrifice her dreams because she has a child. We have to somewhere plan out a balanced life where both of us can enjoy both, our personal as well as professional life. Seema Sinha is a Mumbai-based mainstream entertainment journalist who has been covering Bollywood and television industry for over two decades. Her forte is candid tell-all interviews, news reporting and newsbreaks, investigative journalism and more. She believes in dismissing what is gossipy, casual, frivolous and fluff. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.