The Idealist

By Rinky Kumar

Published: Volume 15, Issue 7, July, 2007


An unflinching love for cinema kept Rajat Kapoor from giving up when his directorial labour of love, Raghu Romeo, sank at the box office. But the actor-filmmaker stuck to his guns and eventually triumphed against the odds. Close on the heels of Bheja Fry’s success came a whopping 20-crore deal with Pritish Nandy Communications. Rinky Kumar chats with the new ‘it’ man in Bollywood

As a child he was a film buff and decided to be a filmmaker at 14. Till today that passion remains unchanged. As I sit facing writer, director, actor, model Rajat Kapoor in his quaint cottage that doubles as his office, I am reminded of the adage that nothing in the world is achieved without passion. A case in point, Kapoor recently tasted success with Mixed Doubles and Bheja Fry. The snow-balling effect of a hit resulted in a five-film contract worth 20 crores with Pritish Nandy Communications.

At the beginning of his career, the talented director won National Awards for Tarana, a documentary on Hindustani classical music and Hypnothesis, a short film about a kidnapping that goes hysterically wrong. But the going was far from easy. Kapoor’s first feature film, Private Detective, never saw the light of the day. “I had made it for a private channel, which went bust after three months. We finished post-production with great difficulty, but couldn’t find any distributor.” Though he was disappointed, he continued working on the scripts of Mithya and Raghu Romeo.

Meanwhile, Kapoor started acting and modelling to save money to make his next film, Raghu Romeo. “It was screened at several international film festivals in 2003 and won a lot of accolades. When it was screened at MAMI, there were 1,200 odd people laughing while watching the film. But when it was released after a year, it bombed at the box office.” The actor claims it was a badly timed release. “Raghu Romeo was released on the same day as Lakshya. Who would want to come and watch Vijay Raaz and Sadiya Siddiqui when they can watch Hrithik Roshan?” He was heartbroken and went into depression. “I seriously felt I would never be able to make a film again.”

But his love for movies prevented him from going under. He started working on his next project, Mixed Doubles, a satire on marriage, starring Ranvir Shorey, Konkona Sensharma and Koel Purie. The film made on a shoestring budget of 60 lakhs was well received. Kapoor also made his presence felt as the conniving Vinay Sehgal of Corporate and the simple Vinod of Mixed Doubles. Then came Bheja Fry, the surprise hit of this year, where he played the arrogant Ranjeet Thadani. “Bheja Fry was a small film starring Vinay Pathak and me. But it has done very well at the box office. Till recently, it made collections of Rs 4 lakh per week in a centre like Nagpur.”

Kapoor attributes the success of the film to its unusual theme and a well-timed release. “Today, B-grade Bollywood cinema is dead. This is good news for independent filmmakers like me. At least now we have managed to get a step in the door, which we were denied earlier. This is the best time to make as edgy a film as possible.”
His next directorial venture Mithya is all set for release. About an incompetent actor, Ranvir Shorey, who gets stuck with gangsters, the film also features Neha Dhupia, Vinay Pathak, Sourabh Shukla and Naseeruddin Shah. Kapoor has a clear vision about the kind of films he wants to make. “I’ll never copy an English movie, nor make a pan-Indian film because that is not my sensibility. I want to make movies that please me and reflect my world view. I’ll never make a film that compromises my vision.”

The maverick regrets that though there’s a great chance to make good films right now, directors are not up to the mark. He is appalled at the commercial mindset of the Indian film industry. “Filmmakers want to make films that are the flavour of the season. As directors we should do what we want to do and be proud of it. Until that happens, we will never be able to make a film that will stand the test of time.”

Kapoor reappears on the big screen as a superstar of the 1950s in Sudhir Mishra’s Khoya Khoya Chand. He also features in the long-running play, C for Clown. The versatile actor, who finds acting completely de-stressing, nurtures a desire to portray the role of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Idiot.

Things are on a roll for the director who is excited about his contract with PNC and is currently sifting through scripts of films. He admits he is still getting used to his reversal of fortune. “Earlier, it was difficult to stick to my convictions and not compromise my vision. Now it is like living a dream.”