‘He wants to do films that he would love to watch’: Anil Kapoor on Harshvardhan Kapoor’s Choices

Ahead of the release of JugJugg Jeeyo, the cast – Anil Kapoor, Neetu Singh, Varun Dhawan and Kiara Advani – was in conversation with Anupama Chopra. Kapoor reflected on stardom, his son and the choices they make, while Dhawan weighed in on it too.

Edited Excerpts:

When I interviewed Karan Johar, he said that stardom of a certain kind is over. He told me that though there will still be popular actors there won't be anyone on the level of someone like Shah Rukh Khan, who can change the chemistry of any room they walk into. What do you think about that?

Anil: I think there's nothing like stardom being over. There will always be someone better and there'll always be someone bigger than the biggest. That's just how life and the universe works. The quote sounds good in theory but the reality is that it's simply not true. People said that about Elvis as well and then Michael Jackson came around and reached even bigger levels of stardom. In every profession, there will be someone who people think can't be replaced but in the end, he ends up not only being replaced but also ends up being trumped. Of course, there will be bigger stars and not only will they be bigger stars, but they'll have better talent as well.

David Dhawan always wants Varun to star in films that will do well commercially rather than more artistic films, do you want the same thing for your son?

Anil: Look, I'm growing as a parent and I'm learning. It's not like anyone is born a good parent but ultimately what I've learnt is that you should be happy about whatever makes your child happy. If getting positive reactions from films Thar, Spotlight and Bhavesh Joshi make Harsh (Harshvardhan Kapoor) happy then in the end it makes me happy too. His personality is such that he wants to do films that he himself would love to watch. No matter how much I try to change that, it won't happen and even if it does, it'll only make him unhappy.

Varun: As an actor who is senior to Harsh, I must say I've really been happy with the last couple of films he has done. I think he's picking really interesting films and creating a base of his own. I loved him in Ray and in particular, I thought he was amazing in AK vs AK, I honestly thought he stole the show.

Anil: I would have never done that role, personally, since his scene was only a minute and a half. When a scene is that short and you mess it up even a little bit, the director will cut it without any hesitation. As a matter of fact, I was offered a part in the biggest franchise in the world but it was only two days of work so I rejected it even though the director called me up personally. I decided not to do it though, because not only did I not understand my scene but I was also worried that if I went wrong that day then I would be exposed to the whole world.