my next - Times of India

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S U N D AY I A P R I L 4 , 2 0 1 0
I’llmylock
up
next
girlfriend!
very close to my grandparents and had many will keep me wondering… ‘arre maine kuch galat toh nahi
cousins around. My father would visit us once in a kar diya’ (hope I haven’t made any mistake),” says Shahid.
while,” says Shahid, who was closer to his mother
This brings us to the controversy that Shahid didn’t do
for the first 15 to 16 years. Then, when they shifted his mother’s film, despite her having mentioned that she
to Mumbai, he started spending a lot
would want him to play an integral part
of time with his father and grew
HAVE I BEEN LINKED in it. An indignant Shahid gets sarcastic,
closer to him. “It’s always difficult
‘I have opened a new company where I
TO EVERYONE? KOI
to choose between your parhave asked my relatives to register their
NAHI BACHA HAI, NA? names.. so one by one I will do each one's
ents. I am close to both
“
”
It’s a woman’s world, confesses Shahid Kapoor,
as he talks to Seema Sinha about growing up with
a single parent, rumours that surround him and
learning to live like a star
S
HAHID KAPOOR would like to re-work his family in rather than what I felt the
tree because he has just discovered that his lineage audience would want to see, and
can be traced to the legendary poet Mirza Ghalib, al- the minute I started doing that
beit tenuously. Shahid’s great grandfather, the everything started falling in place,”
renowned novelist, journalist and director, Khwaja Ahmed says Shahid, who is reserved and shy
Abbas was the grandson of Hali, the chief protégé of Ghal- by nature. “I take time to open up, but
ib. “So, should I now start writing and stop acting? Am I in once I get to know the person then I
the wrong profession?” he laughs non-stop. “Such is life, I can be quite a pain,” he grins.
never thought I would be an actor earlier
The decision of taking a
on. Later on, I had those dreams which
I AM CLOSE TO BOTH plunge into the unpreseemed very far away and today, I am livdictable business of films
MY PARENTS, BUT I
ing my dream. I am privileged,” says
was a tough one for Shahid,
PROBABLY DISCUSS
Shahid.
particularly because of reFrom a gawky 17-year-old teenager
sponsibilities that came with
THINGS MORE WITH
who was stopped from entering the stubeing the eldest son of a single
DAD. I AM HUGELY
dio where his first ad film was to be shot
parent. “I am a very realistic perINFLUENCED BY HIM
with Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Rani
son. I have always lived a middleMukherji more than a decade ago, to a
class life and since my mother
confident actor of the dark thriller and double-act block- (Neelima Azeem, who is a well-known actor, poet
buster Kaminey, Shahid has certainly come a long way. He and dancer) and I were alone, there were certain
recalls with a hearty laugh, “I was stopped at the gate as responsibilities as the older son. I had to grow up
the security guard thought that I was star-struck and just faster. One day, I decided to start acting. I did quite
wanted to see the shoot. And I kept pleading, ‘main model a few auditions, got rejected, and did many acting
hoon mera ad shoot ho raha hai’ (I am a model, my ad is be- workshops, too. I had given myself four to five years,
ing shot) and finally had to call the assistant director out- or I would look for other options,” he explains.
side to take me in.”
With his parents separating when Shahid was just
“Three years ago, I started doing work that I believed three, his childhood was troubled, but not traumatic. “I was
THESE RUMOURS WILL film.” And he gets serious, “This is cinbut I probably talk
and discuss more
ema. It doesn’t work like that. My mothFLOAT TILL I SETTLE
about life with
er was speaking hypothetically. And it’s
DOWN!
my dad. I
really sad when I am told that I chose
have been
Dad. My parents were the saddest people
hugely influenced by him. when they read this because parents don’t ask anything
My mother and I have from children, they only give.”
been through differSo what more could Sasha (as he is popularly known
ent stages of life,” among his family, friends and female admirers) ask for?
says Shahid.
(Incidentally, his girl fans are called Kaminies and CharIt’s his father lie's Angels post-Kaminey.) “I am a Hindi film hero, peoPankaj Ka- ple want to know about my life, I drive a nice, cool car,
pur’s film and yes, I am linked to all my heroines.” While in college,
M a u s a m , he would hum, Pehla nasha pehla khumaar, naya pyaar hai,
an intense naya intezaar.. for a pretty young thing in a spaghetti top
romance and short hair, and if one goes by the reports, currently
d r a m a he seems to be singing the ditty for all his female leads.
with Son- “Have I been linked to everyone? Koi nahi bacha hai, na?
a
m I wish my love life was as exciting as it sounds in newsK a p o o r, papers, but unfortunately it isn’t. These rumours will
that’s on top float till the time I settle down which is not happening
of his mind these anytime soon,” laughs Shahid.
days. A long schedule to
If the industry rumours are to be believed, Shahid’s
begin April-end, in Pun- habit of interfering in his women’s lives from the choice of
jab, Europe and Mum- films to the clothes they wear forces them to call it quits.
bai, Shahid will not do “Yes, of course, I will lock my next girlfriend in a room and
anything else while say, ‘Kahin nahi jaayegi tu..yahin reh..samajhti kya hai apne
shooting
for aap ko?” he jokes. He defends himself saying, “Arre bhaiyya,
Mausam. “For four all men have to accept that it is the woman’s world. I have
years I have been no qualms in saying that the woman in my life will take
running after my most decisions for me. Couples fight but when two tears
father, ‘Papa, drop, the man is forced to say, ‘Ok, I am sorry it was my
make a film for fault.’ So it is better you put all your weapons down in the
me, main hero beginning and agree with your woman,” he adds.
Today, Shahid is on a high, giving tough competition to
ban sakta hoon
(mimics like a many. He reminisces about the day he had to collect his
child). But debut award for Ishq Vishq Pyar Vyaar. “I went to Lokhandnow I am pet- wala market (in Mumbai), picked up one pant and one
rified.
If shirt and I had not even done my hair properly. I didn’t
s o m e o n e know how to groom myself. I had not learnt how to play
shouts and a star,” he says. And now, when you see his chaperone folyells at you it lowing him with an umbrella over his head, one wonders
is fine, but if he has learnt to play a star a bit too well!
■ TIMES NEWS NETWORK
dad’s digniseema.sinha@timesgroup.com
fied silence
“
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