In Search Of An Identity Of His Own

(To celebrate his 68^th birthday today on September 3, we wish him by reproducing this rare old interview of SHAKTI KAPOOR by JYOTHI VENKATESH which appeared in the now defunct weekly CLARITY dt May 13, 1978, exactly 42 years ago)

You have heard about film titles which keep on changing before the film is completed and released. Here’s a newcomer who has changed his screen name an year after he made his debut in the industry via the Pune Film Institute. He has discarded his original name Sunil Kapoor and opted for a new name-Shakti Kapoor.

Why this change of name? I ask Sunil Kapoor (sorry Shakti ) when he informs me of his decision on the landline phone one fine morning. “Let’s meet this afternoon at the Oberoi Sheraton and talk it over”, he says. I agree and meet him at 1 pm at the Hotel lobby.

I suggest we can talk over lunch- Shakti, his secretary and I, as I am working in the Accounts department of the hotel. He doesn’t like the idea. “I skip lunch these days. I have to maintain my physique, you see”, Shakti grins and requests me to conduct the interview at the lobby itself.

Maybe he is short of the ‘dough’, I must bear my hunger and go ahead with our tete-a-tete.”It was Sunil Dutt who suggested that I change my name from Sunil Kapoor to Shakti Kapoor. I flipped for the suggestion immediately because right at the moment, I am working with him in not just one or two but three different movies. Ganga Ka Beta, being directed by Kanak Misra and starring Sunil Dutt, Vinod Khanna, Saira Banu, Reena Roy and myself and Watan in which I am pitted against Sunil Dutt, Sanjeev Kumar and Sanjay. I want to splash on the screen with a bang. Like Duttsaab said, I would not be able to make the audience sit up and take notice of me if I stick to my original name. I want to establish an identity of my own.”

Unable to contain my hunger, I now take Shakti and his secretary to the staff cafeteria where both of them pounce on the ‘thali’. How are the newcomers treated in the industry? I ask him. Shakti laments. “It is really difficult for newcomers to settle themselves down and adjust in the industry. The advent of the multi star film era has affected the influx of the newcomers. If newcomers are not taken in multi star films, their fate is going to turn from bad to worse. The situation is like that today. Everyone wants only the stars to act in his movie. The producers pass on the buck to the distributors who in turn blame the audiences.”

It was in 1967 that Shakti joined the Film Institute. “There was a stiff competition to get admission. Out of the thousands of applications, only two boys were selected from Delhi- Anil Verma and me.” The Institute proved to be lucky for Sunil oops sorry once again Shakti because even before he got out of the portals of the Institute, he was signed by producer director Arjun Hingorani to play important roles in his Khel Khladi Ka and Katilon Ka Katil with Dharmendra.

Why did he join the Institute instead of trying to make his bow in films directly? Does he believe that acting can be taught? I ask him. He looks at me straight in the eye and grins. “I had no other alternative but to join the Institute because I knew none in the industry. And unless and until you know someone here, it is difficult to get a foothold in films. Also I believe that the FTII is a passport to join films. I agree that acting cannot be taught. But other things that go along with acting can certainly be learnt at the Institute. Like diction, pronunciation, camera angles etc. After my tenure at the FTII, I gained a sense of responsibility. I became mature enough to learn what life is, with all its ups and downs.”

In addition to Ganga Ka Beta, Yaari Dushmani and Watan, Shakti’s films include Qurbani with Feroz Khan and Zeenat Aman and Aakhri Jaam with Rishi Kapoor and Rameshwari. In all these films, Shakti plays the villain. He suits the role to a T because he is tall and hefty and what’s more, also presents a picture of virility.

What kind of roles would you like to play? I prod him. “Give me any role”, he quips and pauses. “I am not a producer”, I joke.

Shakti continues. “I am game for all sorts of roles. I don’t believe in getting typed or having a set image. I would love to do roles where I am not what I am in reality. Like for example, I would like to do a comedy role or play a village bumpkin or a coward collegian. What’s the point if I accept only these roles where I have to bash up 10 guys? Unless and until I am allowed to portray various roles, I would not be able to convince the people that I can also act.”

Shakti was bent upon becoming an actor. That’s the reason he refused to join his parents garment business in New Delhi after he graduated from the K.M. College there with a B. Com degree.”I just cannot think of holding a routine 9 to 5 job. I am not cut up for it”, he asserts. And adds,  “Working in films is intoxicating. You can enact your dreams only in films. Today I can play a Mafia leader and tomorrow I can play the Prime Minister, though in real life, I cannot become either.”

I decide to tickle him. If acting was in his blood right since childhood, why didn’t he take up acting on the stage? Without batting his eye lids, he answers. “I want glamour, name and money, which in India, the stage cannot offer. Only films can offer these, you see.”

Which according to him is more important to click in films- luck or talent? “Luck is only secondary to talent. You may get a break if you are lucky. But to continue working in films, you need to have to have talent within you.”

Shakti likes to have a good time with girls, without any strings attached, without any sense of involvement. But when it comes to marriage, he prefers a homey, quiet kind of a girl who would wait for his arrival at home after a hard day’s work in the studios. What if the girl is an actress? I intercept him. I know that he is going around with an actress who had also passed out of the Institute with him. He blurts out the truth. “She will quit films after our marriage. She has agreed. But it will be only after a couple of years after I establish myself in the industry.”

The next day Shakti’s secretary lands at my office at Oberoi Sheraton all the way from Juhu to Nariman Point to hand over to me his black and white photos to go with the publication and confesses to me that Shakti had come to visit me in the  Fiat borrowed from his girl friend ( I would not like to disclose the name of the poor actress who is till today a spinster) with just five bucks in his pocket and a packet with only one Marlboro cigarette and hence couldn’t resist having food at the staff cafeteria. “We had planned to just eat a vada pav each and 'cutting chai' ''in the footpath in Nariman Point with the five rupees in Sir’s pocket”, the secretary blurts out. By the way, the then secretary of Sunil aka Shakti Kapoor is today after quitting acting in films, my good friend and a popular acting school owner. Such are the vagaries of life, dearies,  as my colleague Khalid Mohammad would write.