Pushing the envelope...

Pushing the envelope...

Not every actor is as comfortable as Anil Kapoor, when it comes to talkingabout himself or his craft. His enthusiasm to deconstruct his characters,romanticise his struggle for acceptance, and pat himself on his back for hisevery achievement is often mistaken for arrogance, over-confidence and evenvanity. He doesn't take very kindly to criticism either. But the actorinsists that it is essential for him to explain his career decisions in themedia, and to correct those so-called trade pundits "because one needs tomake sure that the audience is never misinformed or misled."

A few weeks before the release of his latest film, Hamara Dil Aapke PaasHai, Kapoor keeps himself busy monitoring the release strategy for themovie. He's also acquired a keen interest in the publicity designdepartment, and is constantly offering suggestions to better the vinylhoardings and posters of the film. "When one spends so much time and energymaking a film, one might as well be associated with it till the very end,making sure everything goes right," he says. Revealing that he mostly takesa few weeks off before his every release so he can participate in the film'spromotion process and supervise production duties too, Kapoor says thiseagerness to help is almost always appreciated by the film-maker.

However, he admits, "it's a tiring job". The actor says he rarelydiscriminates between the movies his brother produces, and those that he'sonly acting in. "Over the years, film-making has become a team effort, andnow merely doing your own job is not enough." On occasions, Kapoor says, hehas been so involved in outside films, that he has had to ignore his homeproductions. "I couldn't be as involved with Pukar as perhaps I would haveliked to," he confesses. And this, he says, has prompted him to launch hisown production company with film-maker Satish Kaushik.

He is eager to clarify that his new role as a film-maker will not, in anyway, affect his acting career. "I want to explore greater horizons as aperformer," he says in his air-conditioned make-up van at a studio inHyderabad. He points to parts in such films as Biwi No 1, Mann and Taal asthe sort other leading actors might not have accepted. "But the excitementlies in surprising your audience, not in doing the same thing over and overagain," he says.

Unarguably, he's an actor who has pushed the envelope at every availableopportunity. His roles in such films as Lamhe, Eeshwar and Virasat suggest akeenness to tackle the unexplored. And of course, he's quick to shabaash youon your observation. "Although so many actors have come after me, I'm stilla saleable commodity at the box-office," he says. "There's a certain degreeof respect attached to the movies I do, and that's because I've earned sucha reputation over the years."

Forty, and loving it, Kapoor claims age has in no way dampened his spirits."In the West, the older you get, the more interesting the roles. Look atactors like Robert Redford, Richard Gere, Warren Beatty, Clint Eastwood..."he rattles off. The actor says the parts coming his way haven't got any lessinteresting either. Right now, he's gung-ho about South-wiz Shankar's remakeof Mudalavan, which he's doing with Rani Mukherji. And he can go intoraptures discussing the film he is getting ready to produce with Kaushik."The day I stop feeling excited about my work, I'll know it's time to quit,"he says.