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Calling the shots

Anil Kapoor turns producer with “Gandhi My Father”

Photo: R.V. Moorthy

Real aspirations Anil Kapoor

Anil Kapoor is one actor who writes his own dialogues, literally! “This is one thing I learnt from Dilip (Kumar) Sahib. Among the current crop of actors, I am the only one who worked with him in three films. He had this habit of rewriting his d ialogues in his own handwriting. I picked it up and realised it feels like owning the lines if you pen them down.”

For now, he scripts a new high in his career as he turns producer with Gandhi My Father, releasing this August. Aren’t the Kapoors known for Mr. Indias and No Entrys…potboilers? Laug hs Anil, “Well, I have always been a rebel in my family. I was the first to take up acting as a profession. Then I chose to work with Mahesh Bhatt when nobody from mainstream was ready to work with him. I signed a film with Vinod Chopra when he literally had Rs. 18 in his pocket and risked working with Priyadarshan when not many had heard his name in North India. So it was expected of me to choose a different subject.”

Anil says it’s the story that made him produce the film. “It’s as mainstream as you can get in Bollywood. It focusses on the conflict between the values of a father and the aspirations of a son. It’s just that the father happens to be Mahatma Gandhi and that lends it epic proportions.” Directed by renowned theatre director Feroz Abbas Khan, the film stars Akshaye Khanna as Harilal Gandhi and Darshan Jariwala as Gandhi. Didn’t he feel tempted to act? “The temptation was there for I know Feroz for long and used to go to him to understand how to play a particular character, but Feroz did not find me good enough for any role. Seriously, I did not fit in.”

Having spent more than two decades in the industry, Anil says production values have changed.

“Earlier, no time was spent on pre-production, so execution used to take two to three years. These days, it’s just the opposite. That’s why even a period film could be completed in a few months.” Along the way, Anil has also learnt from the Khans who replaced him in the late 1990s. No remakes or sequels? “I don’t believe in them.” Meanwhile, his daughter Sonam will make her debut later this year with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Sanwariya.

All in the genes?

ANUJ KUMAR

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