“I'm quite in the privileged category.” Ranbir Kapoor speaks about his time in the pandemic, his father and girlfriend Alia in this interview with Rajeev Masand.
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00:00It's been a terrible time for people.
00:05It's been, it's been probably the worst that the world has seen in a long time.
00:09You know, my girlfriend Alia is a bit of a overachiever and she probably took every class
00:14that is, you know, from guitar to screenwriting.
00:17I want to be married by 32 and have kids by 34.
00:20I think that was the original plan.
00:22You missed that deadline.
00:26You lost your father in April and he was an incredible actor.
00:29He's left this massive legacy.
00:31He was, he was extremely versatile.
00:33He was someone who had a very natural style of acting in his sixties.
00:37He was, you know, they were still writing terrific roles for him and I, you know, and
00:41he enjoyed, he really enjoyed sinking his teeth into those roles.
00:45If I were to ask you to meet him, what way has he inspired you both as a young man and
00:49as an actor?
00:50Well, in every which way, you know, I think the person I am is because of, you know, the
00:57strong value system that he imbibed to my sister and myself, you know, he's been an
01:03extremely passionate man, a family man.
01:07I mean, just the time I spent with him in these last two years before he passed, you
01:12know, walking with him from the hotel to the hospital while he was getting his chemotherapy
01:18and just walking in silence and just being around him.
01:23Everything has been, it's gone so fast, but I don't know if I've really formed words yet,
01:30you know, like what impact he's had on me professionally and personally.
01:36But I do know that it's the largest impact a human being has had in my life so far.
01:41How do you decide whether to do a film or not?
01:44What do you base your decision on?
01:46I ask because the choices are exciting choices.
01:49What you tend to pick are interesting subjects.
01:51How do you decide?
01:55I think Rajeev, it's a number of things, you know, it starts, it starts off with instinct.
01:59It's your gut feeling, timing at what point in your life the film offer has come.
02:06It could be towards, you know, while you're ending one film and you're looking for some
02:09work, sometimes a great offer comes while you're already shooting two films and you
02:12can't commit to it.
02:14The director, the story, the character, I guess it's an amalgamation of a lot of things, but
02:20eventually it's just your instinct and gut, you know, you can't like something and then
02:24confuse yourself by giving it to other people to read the material because you had a certain
02:30liking towards something and, and, and lots of people are not going to feel the same way.
02:36So I think instinct is the top thing.
02:39So you don't, you don't have bouncing boards, you usually take these decisions yourself?
02:44So far I have, yes.
02:47And oftentimes when I feel, I've been told that maybe, you know, I should share it with
02:54people who are intelligent or, you know, who are more cinema wise, but I don't think that
03:00really works out because eventually I, as an artist, I have to go and, and, and, and
03:04empathize with the story, the character and perform it.
03:08So it's, it's a very personal thing and, you know, you think over the years you start learning
03:12from your own choices.
03:14Some do well, some don't, but eventually they are your own choices.
03:17What would it take to get you to do a mini series, you know, streaming show?
03:21I know that you watch a lot of good stuff.
03:23I'm guessing you've caught up with a lot of shows this year.
03:27Well, Rajiv, just a good offer.
03:31You know, I've really not got an interesting OTT offer.
03:35I'm definitely not shying away from it.
03:38Yes.
03:39Like I mentioned earlier, it's, it's a privilege to be part of the movies, you know, to have
03:45your movies released in theaters.
03:47And I'm very grateful that I get that privilege.
03:53But I have nothing against, you know, being on an OTT platform.
03:58I'm just waiting for a correct offer.
04:00Actually, I'm just waiting for an offer.
04:01I really haven't got an offer from any OTT maker.
04:05Okay.
04:06I think that might change after this review.
04:07They probably think you don't want to do it.
04:09I hope.
04:10Okay.
04:11Did you take any online classes?
04:12You know, lots of people have been doing that.
04:13Did you do anything?
04:14I mean, at all in the early part of the lockdown?
04:17You know, my girlfriend Alia is a bit of a overachiever and she probably took every class
04:21there is, you know, from guitar to screenwriting.
04:26And I always, I always feel like a underachiever next to her.
04:31But no, I didn't take anything.
04:33I was like, you know, initially we were dealing with the family crisis and then I, you know,
04:40I just got into reading, reading, you know, trying to stay healthy, trying to spend time
04:45with my family and watch a lot of content.
04:49I watched so many movies.
04:50I probably averaged that two to three films a day.
04:53You know, Ranbir, the first time we did an interview, I think it was 13 years ago before
04:57your first movie came out.
04:58Even I remember you saying that I want to be married by 32 and have kids by 34.
05:02I think that was the original plan.
05:04You missed that deadline.
05:05Was it?
05:06Yeah, I think.
05:07By six years.
05:08Six years or something.
05:09Now, again, these are not things that one can really plan to the tee, but are you closer
05:12to achieving that goal?
05:15Well, I think I would, I think it would have already been sealed if the pandemic had not
05:20hit our lives.
05:24But I don't want to jinx it by saying anything, you know, I want to kind of tick mark that
05:31goal very soon in my life.
05:33So hopefully next year will be both professionally and personally quite exciting.
05:36I hope so.
05:37Ranbir, between working, travel and, you know, regular contact and gatherings with friends
05:42and family, what did you realize you missed the most in the year that there were restrictions
05:46on all of these things?
05:47You know, Rajiv, to be honest, I'm quite a homebody.
05:50So and I'm quite in the, in the privileged category, you know, so I could sit at home
06:01and just be, you know, I didn't have anything to worry about.
06:06So I think it's a really unfair question for me to answer this because it's been a terrible
06:12time for people.
06:13It's been, it's been probably the worst that the world has seen in a long time.
06:18So I, you know, I can go on and talk about, you know, I was doing this and I did that.
06:22But I think that's, it won't sound right.