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‘Stars don’t have guts’
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Rajat Kapoor and Kaushik Roy on stars, films and more
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Out of the box Kaushik Roy and Rajat Kapoor prefer movies that aren’t run of the mill
He doesn’t keep a mobile phone. Or wear a watch. Independent filmmaker and actor Rajat Kapoor is the epitome of freedom, refusing to be tied down to any slot or label. Kaushik Roy is the director of “Apna Aasman”, and also the President of Brand Strategy and Marketing Communication, Reliance Industries.
SUDHISH
KAMATH engages them in an interesting conversation. Rajat: How excited are you? Your first film has just released.
Kaushik: Very scared for I don’t know what’s going to happen. Haven’t slept for days. We were discussing in the morning, you said superstars continue to play the same kind of role over and over again not because they can’t but because their audience wants them to be what they are.
Rajat: It is also the persona that you’ve created. And to keep the persona going is what makes the star.
The star and the persona are closely related. First, you don’t want them to change it or at least until they can re-invent the new persona. Like Dilip Kumar.
Kaushik: Or Sanjeev Kumar... He was very different.
Rajat: He too had the same style, same smile and he certainly wasn’t a star. But yes, he was more refreshing than the rest, he wasn’t hammy… but within that, he got into his own clichés. Like Rajesh Khanna, after five films, knew what was working and never came out of that.
Kaushik: It’s more like a notebook of what you carry
Rajat: Why does somebody become a star besides the inherent charisma and knowledge of the camera and the image? It’s also because they fulfil some kind of a social fantasy of that time.
But you can only do what you can do and somehow, sometimes it clicks. Like Brando in “On the Waterfront” … or even Vinay Pathak as Bharat Bhushan (“Bheja Fry”) or Gabbar Singh of “Sholay” or Vijay or “Deewar” clicked at that time...
Kaushik: Amjad Khan’s Gabbar Singh persona is so big yet when I saw him in “Shatranj Ke Khiladi”, he was very different. Someone made him realise that he wasn’t Gabbar Singh anymore. Ashutosh was able to get Shah Rukh to do a role which wasn’t Shah Rukh Khan... He didn’t spread out his hands and sing in “Swades”.
Rajat: He was wonderful in it and still charming.
Kaushik: Absolutely. He managed to do that and he wasn’t rejected...
Rajat: But, “Swades” wasn’t such a great hit.
Kaushik: Stars have to reinvent themselves.
Rajat: They do try. Like SRK did with “Paheli”. The other thing is Brando or Nicholson do one film in one or two years. So in 30 years, they’ve done 30 films max. So, that mystique manages to last longer. Out here, you are doing eight films a year.
If Bachchan has managed to survive doing eight films a year, that’s phenomenal too. He’s managed, gone through his bad phases and he’s reinvented himself constantly especially now with “Black”, “Cheeni Kum” and “Sarkar”, he’s at least a little more conscious. Why are we talking about stars, by the way? We have no love lost.
Kaushik: We haven’t been able to get the stars to work for us in independent cinema.
Rajat: No wonder they don’t manage to reinvent themselves.
Kaushik: They should consciously work in some independent film production.
Rajat: The point is some one like Bruce Willis would do a “Pulp Fiction”. Out here, they don’t have the guts. The basic bloody fact is that they are so scared of losing what they have and becoming a bigger brand is their only ambition. It’s not about acting.
Kaushik: I don’t know what they are scared about because they’ve done some terrible films. They are ruining their brand equity. In India, it is not the director or the banner or the scriptwriter.
No one looks into the fine print, they just go to see the star. And having seen more bad films of a star, they would stop going to see his films.
Rajat: That’s why they do eight films a year, so that even if two of them work, they stay on.
Kaushik: That puts a strain on them. Another way of ensuring that they are running out of what they have in their inventory.
Rajat: Aamir had guts. Three years ago, he said he’ll do one film at a time. It was very courageous to do that.
Kaushik: Nowadays… With all due respect to Ram Gopal Varma, one film a month? How can that happen?
Rajat: Sure it’s called The Factory, but it doesn’t have to live up to it...
Kaushik: It could be a factory of ideas but you can’t direct a film every month...
Rajat: He’s also producing some.
Kaushik: That’s a mercenary approach. A film, you have to be wedded to it...
Rajat: I enjoy the process, that’s why I’m making a film. If you don’t enjoy it, why are you doing it?
Kaushik: A director needs to be there for everything. You can’t be missing in action. At the end of it, is it really looking like what you wanted?
Rajat: Today, a rough cut is done by the assistant editor. How can you be the editor and not know your material? It is out of that material you are supposed to make something.
Kaushik: And assistants have assistants. This is where independent cinema has to be different. It’s about one’s own conviction and commitment.
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