EXCLUSIVE | Shahid Kapoor on 'Bloody Daddy': 'The subject matter felt like it could be more pure on OTT'

Shahid Kapoor completed 20 years as an actor last month with the college romance Ishq Vishk. Two decades, 30 films, one web show (Farzi) later, he now gears up for Bloody Daddy, a film that’s going to be streaming on JioCinema from June 9. And in an exclusive interview with Firstpost, Kapoor opens up on his yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Ishq Vishk was all about love, the colour of red. Bloody Daddy is all about blood, again the colour of red. So how does it feel to come from one red to another?

Wow that’s quite a broad question. I think I’ve been through all the colours of the rainbow to go from red back to red. Like you said, Ishq Vishk was a very sweet and romantic kind of red and this is a very intense kind of red. But that’s I guess how much time it takes for somebody like me who has a boyish personality, it takes some time to enter more manly kind of a character. So let’s just say I’ve been waiting for a character like this for a very long time and I’m very happy to be accepted in this space. I started very early with films like Kaminey and Haider which are more than a decade-old right; there’s more to me than what you see. If you want to be diverse in your choices, give people different experiences and grow, you need to choose different roles. All this has been happening for the last 20 years and here we are now. Farzi came out earlier this year which was my first OTT series, and this was always meant to be for OTT. The subject matter felt like it could be more pure on OTT and the rest when you see the film you decide. It’s coming out on the 9th of June and I’m very excited.

It’s 20 years of Shahid Kapoor as an actor but over 25 years as a performer if we also include Dil To Pagal Hai and Taal. What’s the one thing Shamak Davar taught you or told you that has stayed with you till today?

Lots of things. I learned how to strive and learn the value of even standing in the third row as a dancer, you have to earn even that. When you learn to hold your position at an early age, when you don’t take things for granted, then only you can prove to yourself that you’re worthy; that journey of mine started with Shamak. When you’re in a group atmosphere and competitive, it’s very healthy as it’s a big leveler. It doesn’t really matter who you are, how good-looking, bad-looking, talented, non-talented, tall or short you are. It all comes down to who can deliver the goods.

Be it Bloody Daddy or Jersey or Haider or Kabir Singh I like how there’s a different father son dynamic in each of these films. How did it feel as an actor to play a son in two of them and then a father in the other two?

See, filmmaking is only going to be about these fundamental relationships. Every genre cannot survive unless there’s an emotional relationship, be it father-son, sometimes it’s going to be mother-son, sometimes the best friend; I’ve been lucky to have some very memorable best friends, be it Shiva in Kabir Singh or Feroz very recently in Farzi. I don’t think I ever played a father until I turned a father, I guess I sensed I wouldn’t be able to do justice because you’re not able to understand unless you’re one. Now, I’m a dad and my dad is also very much around, I have a little perspective on both sides. In fact, in Jersey, I was playing a father and my father was also in the film.

The film may be dark but the visuals are very rich, it looks very slick and very high on style. When you read the script, could you imagine how this is going to pan out when it’s ready?

Ali has mostly made action films and worked with Salman (Khan) sir, so when he wanted to collaborate with me, I was like how will me meet. I’ve done a few action films and Ali has his own voice as a filmmaker, so I think with this film we tried to bring both the voices together. This is a very performance oriented, dramatic kind of a film, there’s a lot of potential for a performance for me and for the action. He was trusting me as an actor for the performance and I was trusting him completely as a director so this film is the right first step for both of us. The action is little more towards real, little bit grittier, it doesn’t feel you’re watching it from the outside. You can’t perform one action scene and then jump on to the other, you have to look tired, so all those elements are there.

People have been talking about films on OTT and in cinemas, how there’s no pressure of box office on OTT, when you see a film in cinemas, which has done extremely well, do you ever discuss box office with your friends or people around?

We are living in a time when everyone knows the numbers. Whether the film is accepted or not, we want to know the numbers, but you get to know these numbers because there’s so much talk and so many messages happening around; overall, you come to know how people have reacted to the film.

Vivah is the last silver jubilee film of Hindi cinema. Do you miss those days when films used to achieve these remarkable feats and not just in terms of numbers and opening weekends?

No, I think cinema is growing. The way the audience absorbs something or the way the media presents something, all that’s changing. How often do you read a newspaper now? The world is changing and movies will also get affected with the change. In the next five years, internal combustion engine will be obsolete, think about that man. Change is happening all across and I feel cinema and content are a part of that.

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