Ranbir Kapoor And Rajeev Masand In Conversation

Brut India

“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.

Transcript

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.

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