Neetu Kapoor: ‘Every generation will identify with Jug Jugg Jeeyo; women will love my role’

Neetu Kapoor will soon make a comeback to the big screen with the upcoming film Dharma Productions’  Jug Jugg Jeeyo  co-starring Anil Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, Kiara Advani. The Raj Mehta directorial, a star-studded family comedy-drama that arrives on 24 June, marks Neetu Kapoor’s first acting stint since the 2013 film Besharam in which she starred alongside her late husband Rishi Kapoor and son Ranbir Kapoor . Someone who started her acting career as a child artist and rose to fame and prominence at the age of 17-18 with top-grossers like Deewar, Khel Khel Mein, Kabhi Kabhie, Amar Akbar Anthony and many more feels lack of inhibitions in front of the camera is her only advantage, “but where I go from here I don’t know”, she says candidly. Excerpts from her interview:

How did you decide to do Jug Jugg Jeeyo after a long hiatus?

Actually it was Ranbir’s idea that I get back to acting. When my husband, Rishi Kapoor passed away my children asked me what I wanted to do. I said I didn’t know and they suggested that I should start working. Karan Johar , who was also around during this conversation, later approached me with a subject. He came home with the director (Raj Mehta) and when they narrated the script of Jug Jugg Jeeyo I really loved it. It was as if somebody had rubbed a balm on my wound, I was feeling good that I would be doing something. I forgot my grief for that moment and started readying myself for the film. It is a nice film that came to me at the right time and it helped me forget my pain. Now I have got the confidence to do more work. Earlier, my life revolved around my husband, my children but now work is the best thing to keep me occupied. Now there are so many platforms to showcase your talent. I have already said ‘yes’ to a web show which I will start in October.

Your last release Besharam happened sometime in 2013. How was it coming back on sets after so many years? 

It was too scary. Also, now I have grown old, I will turn 64 next month so I am not able to memorise my dialogues fast. I was given two page dialogues for a long scene, a long monologue with Kiara and I always wished I would get just two line dialogues (laughs). I was so nervous. Thank god, around that time I was tested covid positive and I got a break from the shoot for that particular scene (laughs) as the director had told me that some of those long scenes were to be shot in the next 10 days. I was in Chandigarh then. Then I came to Mumbai and one year had passed. I did a few shows which built up my confidence and then those scenes were done when I was in a better space. In fact, I was looking forward to doing those scenes.

In between you were seen in few films …you did a few cameos like in Love Aaj Kal (2009), Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012) and full-fledged roles in Do Dooni Chaar (2010) and Besharam (2013). But then you have also refused some meaty parts in the past like for instance the role that Jaya Bachchan played in Kal Ho Na Ho ? How are things different now?

Besharam I don’t even count but I am proud of Do Dooni Chaar because that film got a National award. But I did some of these films to do my husband a favour; I was never too keen to act then. But today I want to work, whereas at that time I didn’t want to work. It is just that those days I was not in that frame of mind. My husband never told me not to work but he was a very possessive man, he wanted me to be home all the time. Even when I stepped out of the house for a short time he would get insecure about where I was going, when I would return, so I couldn’t imagine going for a shoot while leaving him at home. I didn’t want him to feel miserable. If he was taking two drinks, he would take four in that anxiety of me not being around. Today I have opened up a lot. I always had a very possessive husband and earlier possessive mother because of their great love for me. I miss both of them. I liked their possessiveness but I am also enjoying this life.

But Besharam must have been an interesting experience considering you shared screen space with both, your husband and son?

Yes, in that sense it was special but it is very strange that when the camera starts rolling you forget who they are because then you are into your role, your scene, your dialogue, your expressions… Only pre-scene there is little excitement, ‘Oh my god, today Ranbir and Rishi are there in the scene’, but once the camera is switched on, you forget. And since I have been working as a child artist, you don’t have those inhibitions in front of the camera and that is my only plus point today the rest where I go from here we will see. I don’t know.

You have been part of many blockbusters but it is felt that you were an underrated actress. Did you ever feel so?

Why underrated?? I haven’t done anything great. I would play a thief, a pick-pocket girl, what is so great about these roles? I did some good roles in films like Priyatama, Doosra Aadmi but these films didn’t work at the box office. If the movies work only then actors get the credit. Khel Khel Mein just happened for fun. There was a lot of energy, I was youthful… I think what went in my favour those days was that I was unaware and people liked that natural quality in me. I didn’t look like a fake person on screen. That perhaps was my USP.

Yes, I did blockbusters like Deewar, Kabhi Kabhie … My constant directors from the age of 13 when I started [as a leading lady> till the time I gave up acting, were Manmohan Desai and Yash Chopra. At any given point of time I had a movie under production with them. I even shot for Coolie (opposite Amitabh Bachchan and directed by Manmohan Desai), I did just one scene but then I decided to get married and I returned money to all the producers I had signed films with. I was very young then and I don’t remember how I did all these films.

How do you look at your career in retrospect?

I don’t think I have done much. It is now that I understand movies more …those days I used to do whatever came to me and I did those roles to the best of my ability at that age and the mindset I had. But today I feel I can give a lot [to my craft>, I can really work on a role. So I have to see what opportunities I will get now, where my life will go, I really don’t know. Let’s see if people like me in Jug Jugg Jeeyo. If I could take my career forward I would even want to do a thriller or something exciting or else I would like to sit at home or go on a vacation. I am not there in Jug Jugg Jeeyo throughout but whatever is there is good. I feel nice doing those scenes. There has to be impactful scenes. I definitely don’t want to play bhabhi, maa and some such run-of-the-mill stuff.

How did you like the process of Varun Dhawan and Kiara Advani ? How do you find the young generation of actors today?

They are amazing. With Kiara and Varun there is a scene… when you see the film you will be shocked. This film is such that every generation will identify with it. Every husband is like a Bheem (played by Anil Kapoor), every wife is like Geeta (played by Neetu Kapoor), and what today’s young women think is what Kiara is playing. Varun’s character is also very interesting. Women will love my role. It is amazing how the director has written this script.

Anything that Ranbir and Alia told you when you were shooting the film?

They are such talented actors; they are in the league of their own. I told them that both of you are such tremendous actors, please take my reading. They laughed saying, ‘Mom, you will be fine… you just go with full confidence’.

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.

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