Before exploring complex urban relationships with Gehraiyaan, director Shakun Batra had come up with a dysfunctional family drama Kapoor & Sons that celebrated both frailties and forgiveness. But veteran actor Rishi Kapoor wasn’t really in sync with Shakun’s direction. Since Kapoor was old-school, there wasn’t a single day that went without a fight on the sets with Shakun Batra. He even offered to leave the film twice.
In the film, Kapoor played the role of a 90-year-old Amarjeet Kapoor, the roguish grandfather in the family. He was barely recognizable because of prosthetics and make-up. In his 2016 interview with DNA, Kapoor had candidly opened up about his fights with Shakun Batra. “I didn’t have fun working for Shakun Batra in Kapoor & Sons. You see I worked for 30-32 days on this film. Not a single day passed when Shakun and I didn’t fight,” he had said.
He then added, “It was not a creative fight. It was something else. We fought because I couldn’t agree with his method of working on my role. Shakun wanted to cover every shot of mine from many different angles. But I am old-school spontaneous actor. I couldn’t recreate the same expression several times over for every shot. I respect all schools of acting. But I am not a method actor. With every successive shot I lose my spontaneity. This new style of working where actors give the same shot repeatedly from different angles has gained acceptance because in the digital era no raw stock is wasted. Because they’ve the facility of editing a film on a digital platform they want more software. Thereby actors have turned into robots. ”
Kapoor had informed Karan Johar that he was leaving since it couldn’t do every shot from many angles wearing the makeup for 13 hours and emote in contact lenses. However, the veteran actor ended on a good note saying that he was very happy with his work and had no complaints with Shakun’s method of direction.
“Being the senior-most, everyone would grow quiet when I argued with my director. But ultimately, it was all worth it. I am extremely happy with my work and film. I’ve no complaint at all with Shakun’s way of work method. Because finally, it turned out fine. Shakun was very particular about my body language and dialogues. I had to strike a balance between walking and talking at a pace that was unhurried and yet not too slow because that would get boring,” he had said .
Rishi Kapoor had bagged a Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for his work in Kapoor & Sons.
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