Producing films is tough: Anil Kapoor

By Durga Chakravarty

Mumbai, Jan 26 (IANS) Having bankrolled successful films such as "Khoobsurat", "Veere Di Wedding", "Fanney Khan" and the popular series "24", actor-filmmaker Anil Kapoor finds producing movies a daunting task.

Anil ventured into film production in 2002 with the comedy "Badhaai Ho Badhaai", in which he also starred. It was followed by "My Wife's Murder" in 2005 and "Gandhi, My Father", which was awarded the National Film Award-Special Jury Award/Special Mention. In 2010, he produced "Aisha" starring his daughter Sonam K. Ahuja and his last outing as a producer was in 2018 with "Fanney Khan".

What does he find more daunting - acting or producing?

"Producing is definitely tough," Anil, who has also starred in the Hollywood film "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol", told IANS here.

What about starring in his own productions?

"Casting is very important... Even in my own company, I do get rejected. As a producer, I am conscious about my casting. So, first comes the content. It's not the other way round that you think about a star or an actor or build content. We make content go for the story and build everything around it," said the 62-year-old star.

The "Slumdog Millionaire" star says his daughter Rhea Kapoor and his production company Anil Kapoor Films & Communication Network Seven Stories Ltd. are producing some "exciting work", when it comes to content.

Anil's latest production venture is Netflix's "Selection Day", a series about two brothers -- Radha and Manju -- who are raised by their strict, obsessive father to be star cricket players in India. The cast includes Ratna Pathak Shah, Mahesh Manjrekar, Rajesh Tailang and debutantes Yash Dholye and Mohammad Samad as brothers Radha and Manju Kumar.

With the growing popularity of social media platforms, can digital platforms take over cinemas?

"It is the future and everybody knows it that this is going to be the future, where content will be consumed the maximum... You are your own boss... How much you want to consume, what time you want to consume and there is so much content in various languages, which you can see.

Kapoor was a part of Netflix's "Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle" directed by Andy Sekis. He dubbed the Hindi version of the film, where other Bollywood celebrities like Jackie Shroff, Madhuri Dixit Nene, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Abhishek Bachchan too lent their voices for pivotal characters.

Talking about working with Shroff and Madhuri Dixit Nene in the film, he said: "Our names being in the same film makes me very nostalgic. All three are part of an endeavour after many many years. I think it's after 'Ram Lakhan'."

Kapoor is gearing up for the release of "Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aesa Laga", where he will share screen space with his daughter Sonam K. Ahuja, actor Rajkummar Rao and Juhi Chawla.

(Durga Chakravarty can be contacted at durga.c@ians.in)