Never make me direct Rishi Kapoor.  Oh my goodness!  He just gave an interview about Kapoor and Sons which does not make him sound very fun.  For someone with such a bright and happy onscreen persona, he really does not come across as light-hearted in interviews.  On the other hand, Sonam Kapoor, who comes across as sort of naive and simple onscreen has a really interesting business mind, which is makes me interested in her just announced next career move.

BollywoodHungama has the whole Rishi interview, and oh man is it unpleasant!  It starts out fairly friendly, talking about how the Kapoor and Sons make-up helped him get in character, how he got along well with his younger co-stars despite the huge age gap, how he is playing a 92 year old in this and he was 18 in his first movie, Mere Naam Joker, so there is quite the range.

But then they say something about how he had a good time on set, and he stops them and says “Let me correct you. 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.”  The interviewer keeps trying to soften him up, saying they must have got along by the end of it, or found a way to work together or something, but Rishi is having none of it, “[This problem] didn’t [resolve].  We just fought every day. I sent a word to Karan Johar that I will leave the film.”  He also says that Kareena was similarly miserable working with the same director in Ekk Main Aur Ekk Tu and also threatened to leave the film.

So, first, never make me work with Rishi Kapoor!  Oh my gosh!  He is very opinionated.  But secondly, he actually made some really good points about the problems he was having.  The issue was that Shakun wanted him to do the same scene over and over and over again while it was filmed from multiple angles.  Which Rishi just can’t do, and has not been trained to do.  And Rishi is smart enough that he put his finger on the problem: it’s not a creative difference, it’s a technological one.  Back in the day, like ten years ago, everything was filmed on film and film could not be wasted.  Directors and stars trained to do it all in one shot.  Actors would get in the mood and do it perfectly in one take.  Directors would figure out the exact angle they wanted ahead of time, film from there, stop and switch to a different position when they needed to, and then stop and switch again.

Now, with digital cameras, directors are just filming the same thing over and over and over again from every angle, and then putting it together in editing.  And Rishi is kind of right, it is lazy.  And it is really disrespectful to actors.  Shabana Azmi actually mentioned the same thing about her final scene in Neerja, that it was so hard because she had to do it over and over again and drag up those emotions each time, because the director wanted multiple angles.  And it’s not only older actors like Rishi and Shabana who are trained to do it perfectly in one take, but not to re-create it.  Like he said, even Kareena had a hard time with it.  She started out as recently as the 2000s, but she still learned the traditional Indian film acting, where you are flawless and emotive and perfect, but you only do it once.

In a bigger sense, it’s changing the power structure of Indian film, making the director the one who tells you exactly what to do and has all the power and turning the stars into robots who just follow direction.  Which may work for some of them, Rishi mentioned that Supriya Pathak who is stage-trained had no problems, and Alia and Siddharth were fine because it is all they know, but its just not doable for the old-school STARS.  And probably not for a new school STAR either.  That real star-power, grabbing the camera and forcing it on you, that takes energy.  You just can’t do it take after take, it is a gather your strength and do it once kind of thing.  It’s what makes film acting different from stage acting and stars different from mortals and, yeah, I still don’t want to work with Rishi Kapoor, but I kind of agree with him that the director was wrong to do it like this.

(Rishi Kapoor in his first movie.  Already grabbing the camera at age 18)

In other unrelated Kapoor news, Sonam is making another savvy career move.  Post-Neerja, she’s got all kinds of offers flying at her.  But, she isn’t opting for taking a risk on one of those “star-making” kind of parts, instead she is following her usually policy of quietly building up power through alliances and off-screen actions.  She’s always in the news, she’s always being photographed, but she likes to work with her family’s production house, where she knows she will be presented in the best possible way, or take small roles outside, instead of risking it all on a potential flop that would ruin her star value.

So after Neerja, rather than risk it all on a big film set entirely on her shoulders, which is just setting her up to fail because unless she has a script like Neerja‘s to back her, she just doesn’t have that kind of charisma, she is doing another movie with her sister as producer and the same director as Khoobsurat.  And it’s a multi-starer, so if it fails, it won’t be blamed on her, and if it hits, her career gets another nudge up and her family production house gets a big nudge up.  It’s smart, aimed at building a dynasty, not just a career for one person.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Sonam retires or moves down to just character parts, or switches to fashion design, once their production house gets really successful.  I’ve always gotten more of a business woman and savvy promoter vibe from her than “dedicated artist”.  Or even “desperate need to be famous.”

(The first and last time she risked having a film on her shoulders.  Well, until Neerja, which really rose and fell more on the real story than on her.  Although she was perfect in the role)

And finally, Kangana and Hrithik continue their battle.  And it is getting crazy!  Apparently, they have both filed civil suit against each other.  Hrithik claims she has been harassing him and he has records of over 1,400 emails from her ranging from sexual to threatening.  Kangana claims that Hrithik hacked into her email account and deleted emails from himself that would prove their relationship and might have complicated his divorce.  I think that I wouldn’t want to date either of them, because they both sound CRAZY.  Although if my choice is between having an affair with Hrithik and having to direct Rishi Kapoor, I think Hrithik might be barely preferable.  But my real preference would be to become best friends with Sonam and get the real dish on how crazy all of these people are.