“I have always maintained that acting is just a part of my life and not the be all and end all of life”

DIMPLE KAPADIA

June 8 happened to be Dimple Kapadia’s 63^rd birthday. To mark her birthday belatedly, we reproduce an interview taken ten years ago where DIMPLE KAPADIA tells JYOTHI VENKATESH that Raj Kapoor had set the bar so high that it has always been very difficult for her to match it by way of histrionics after Bobby way back in 1973

Excerpts:

You do not easily accept any offer to act in films. What made you say yes when Kabir Sadanand offered you Tum Milo Toh Sahi?

I accepted the offer when Kabir narrated the script to me because the film is about human victory when ordinary people come together to combine their individual strengths and stand by what they believe in. The best about Tum Milo Toh Sahi is that it is not just a romantic comedy. Actually, it is three unique stories in one.

Can you throw some more light on the subject?

Tum Milo Toh Sahi directed by Kabir Sadanand and produced by Nikhil Panchamiya is a film about ordinary people who become extra ordinary with the strength of love. It is a film about love at different ages. It is about meeting of hearts, meeting of minds and also meeting of souls. Tum Milo Toh Sahi is about how these ordinary people find their true love calling in life by saving an old Irani café against all the forces that stand against us and our traditions.

What is your role in Tum Milo Toh Sahi?

I play the interesting role of Delshad Irani who runs a café and touches people’s lives. Delshad has spent a life time struggling, yet smiling. Delshad battles the demons of her past in the film and you can see how a woman of the world becomes a woman all over again at the ripe age of 58. The ever smiling Delshad is roughly the same age as South Indian Subramaniam played by Nana Patekar but approaches life in a completely different manner.

What is the reason that you do not accept each and every role offered to you?

Raj Kapoor had set the bar so high that, to tell the truth, it has always been very difficult for me to match it by way of histrionics after I had made my debut as an actress with Bobby way back 47 years ago in 1973. I enjoy being an actress but the reason I do not sign each and every role that I am offered is that I want to get my teeth only into roles which have substance. I do not want to act just for the heck of it.

Though you did not have to struggle to get a break as an actress, would you advocate that every newcomer should struggle?

Yes. I should confess that unlike most of the newcomers, who have to struggle a lot to get a break, I did not have to struggle even a wee bit and my role in Bobby landed on my lap on a platter, literally speaking, when Raj Kapoor offered it to me. I think it is very important for any actor to struggle before he or she is able to get a break.

In what way has the film industry changed over the years?

If you ask me whether the film industry has undergone a radical change, I’d say that it continues to be the same. Even today the film industry is like a big family. What has changed is the way the media has grown manifold, making it a must for even an actress like me open up to help the marketing of my film.

How would you evaluate your growth over the years from Bobby to Tum Milo Toh Sahi?

I have definitely grown as an actress over the years from the time that I had made my debut with Bobby to Tum Milo Toh Sahi. I have seen ups and downs as far as my career is concerned but I have never given up, because I have always maintained that acting is just a part of my life and not the be all and end all of life.

To what extent have your directors played a vital role in grooming you as an actress?

All said and done, I’d like to give the entire credit to whatever I am today, as an actress, to each and every director who had molded me in his film over the years, right from Raj Kapoor to a young new director like Kabir Sadananand, because I feel that as an actress you learn everyday by working on the sets and no one is a born actor.

What have you got to say about your son in law Akshay Kumar?

Akshay Kumar is one actor who has succeeded in pushing the envelope as an actor. Over the years he has grown in an amazing manner. He has not left any aspect of any kind of emotion as an actor untouched as an actor. Whether it is that of a comedy role or action role, Akshay has essayed every role in his career with aplomb. I am not telling this just because he happens to be my son in law. I mean it sincerely.