Kunal Kapoor says 'want to do films that are interesting as opposed to popular'

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Actor Kunal Kapoor, who is awaiting the release of his streaming show "The Empire", says he now has the confidence in associating himself with projects that may not be popular but are close to his heart. Kapoor started his acting career with the Maqbool Fida Husain-directed "Meenakshi: A Tale of Three Cities" in 2004 opposite Tabu and has featured in films such as "Rang De Basanti", "Dear Zindagi", "Raag Desh" and "Gold".

After spending about 16 years in Bollywood, the 43-year-old Kapoor said he no longer seeks validation as an actor. "When you have experience, you become far more confident and you don't find the need to validate yourself as much. When you're starting off, there is a need to validate yourself...

"Over time, I found the confidence to believe in doing things that I find interesting as opposed to what will be popular," Kapoor told PTI in an interview.

Actors are "helpless" people, barring the top few who are very "powerful", he said.

"...Somebody else writes the script for you, directs and edits it, gives music to it, produces and releases it. And eventually, the audience will decide whether they like it or not. So, there is a lot that is not in your hands.

"The only thing that is in your hand is the choice that you make. And I feel that choice should be dependent on what you find exciting and interesting as opposed to what you think will be validating."

This is why, the actor said, he chose "The Empire", a fictional account of the Empire of the Moghuls, as his next project because he was fascinated with the plotline and his character arc.

The show is based on Alex Rutherford’s novel "Empire of the Moghul: Raiders from the North" and will see Kapoor play the role of Mughal Empire founder Babur. It is created by Nikkhil Advani and directed by Mitakshara Kumar.

"The main thing that led me to do the show was the story. I had read the novel and found it to be very fascinating because I felt like the book had a lot of drama, politics, treachery, etc. Nikhil and his team have put in all their weight behind this show and gave it a scale that is needed," he added.

Kapoor’s character of Babur in the show spans from the age of 14 till his death at 47 and he said he has relied completely on the book to essay his part. He said he has tried to remain honest in the portrayal of his character.

"I had read the book four months ago before I was approached for the show. When you're reading a book, you're developing a new imagination about how this character would be. So, all my thoughts and material came from what I had imagined when I was reading the book and I had to actually discount everything else," he said.

As part of the preparation, he learned horse riding and sword fighting but the inner journey of his character captivated the actor the most.

"There are physical changes in the character as he grows but there are other changes too like when he was young he would react and make decisions that sometimes can be rash.

"He is an emperor but he is racked with self-doubt. When you look at an emperor or somebody who is successful, you assume they have a lot of confidence, but you don't know what's going on internally within them. That contradiction is very interesting," he added.

Asked if there was any pressure in portraying a historical character, Kapoor said, "I am not thinking about all that as that would put me under unnecessary pressure. I don’t think about any character like that no matter which part I am playing."

The epic drama show boasts of an ensemble cast, including Shabana Azmi, Drashti Dhami, Dino Morea, Aditya Seal, Sahher Bambba and Rahul Dev.
According to popular belief, a king makes all the decisions, Kapoor said, but in "The Empire", the women yield power.

"This is the character (Babur) that can be emotionally weak and sometimes the women in his life are the ones that show him the direction. This is something I have never seen,” he said.

Up next for Kapoor is a biopic on Luger Shiva Keshavan, the country’s best-known Winter Olympian, as a producer.

The film, which will get into pre-production, will hopefully roll next year. "I have a crowdfunding platform called Ketto and Shiva was crowdfunding on the platform as he needed Rs seven lakh to go to the world championship. This is a sport that nobody knows about, it is not something that will get him huge amounts of money or make him incredibly famous.

"But he was so passionate about it and was competing with the biggest teams in the world. Just the fact that somebody loves what they do and despite sometimes having limited resources, he had global ambition. All of this stayed with me," Kapoor said.

"The Empire", produced by Advani’s sister Monisha Advani and Madhu Bhojwani under their banner Emmay Entertainment will premiere on Disney+ Hotstar on August 27.