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In
a time when young blood is ruling the roost, he has been as
steady as the rock! Anil Kapoor promises a laudable performance
and a film worth your paisa at the box-office even today. Beginning
his career with mediocre films like Ek Baar Kaho and Kahan Kahan
Se Guzar Gaya to Who Saat Din and Tezaab, he has given some
of the most memorable performances… performances that people
love to watch till date. With Nayak released this week the actor
once again proves that the mild storms like Hrithik Roshan and
Abhishek Bachchan cannot wither him away! He is the best…
To begin with, how did the title Nayak-The Real Hero come about?
It's a long story! The Real Hero was an English title, the
rights of which lay with my friend Babloo Pachisia. Nayak was
to be tilted The Real Hero originally but Shankar felt that
if the film had a Hindi title it would be better. We began shooting
and after completing work that went on for about eight months,
we still hadn't named the film. I thought why not call it Shivaji
Rao, that's the name of my character in the film. Then suddenly
it struck me, why not call it Nayak. Shankar liked the title
Nayak. But he felt that something should also be added to it
and thus we added The Real Hero to it. We bought it from Babloo
and named the film so! What I liked about my role was that for
the first time I got the opportunity to play a TV journalist…
a Chief Reporter… say an anchor like you (laughs). He works
for QTV and is a Chief Reporter there.
So
somebody wants to become an anchor…
It is quite a responsible job, I learnt!
How was it for a top actor like you to play a Chief Reporter
of a television channel?
I personally met and studied a few of them… those whom I knew
very well like Prannoy Roy and Karan Thapar. I studied their
mannerisms, how they cornered their interviewees, the kind of
conversations they had and believe me I learnt a lot. It helped
me make the character appear absolutely authentic. Playing a
journalist was quite an experience.
How was the experience working with Shankar?
Absolutely great! I have worked with nearly all top directors
like Shekhar Kapur, Subhash Ghai, Yash Chopra, K.Vishwanathan,
Vinod Chopra, N.Chandra, Mani Ratnam etc, I notice that a director
could either be a good story teller or possess great imagination.
He could either be technically well equipped or have a great
visual sense. But Shankar stood different because he was an
expert in all departments. A total workaholic! Also, while working
with other directors, I would see that they get the best out
of me but Shankar saw to it that I not only give him my best
but also put that extra effort as an actor. He has made me work
damn hard for the film. I remember I used to wake Rani up at
three in the morning and tell her, chalo struggle karne ka waqt
hai. But it was great fun.
Did you work on the look yourself?
No! Shankar showed me the kind of hairstyle he wanted and I
told him this won't suit me. But he insisted on it! I uncomfortable
sporting that hair-do initially but later got used to it.
You must tell us about the mud scene…was it actually shot
with 36 cameras?
Yes that's true! I have put monumental efforts to do that scene.
When Shankar first told me about that scene, I was not at all
confident about doing it. I don't have a body the kind Sunny
and Salman have and I told Shankar that and requested him to
give me three months time to get my body into shape. I distinctly
remember it was the month of July and Shankar said he would
shoot that particular sequence in September. And when it came,
I felt I just could not do it and told him to hold on for another
three months. Came November and I still wasn't prepared to shoot
the scene. We finally shot it during the second last schedule.
Before that I even did a photo session to see how my body looked.
Thankfully things went well!
I
believe even for the lathi scene in Virasaat you took training…
Ya! And it was not so easy to learn the lathi fight.
How was it working with Rani Mukherjee? This is the first
time you have been paired with her…
She is one of the finest actresses we have today. Lovely eyes…
camera friendly face… bright smile and most importantly very
disciplined. I have always enjoyed with actresses who have been
passionate about their work and Rani was one of them.
Is it true that the TV studio shown in the film is actually
a mammoth set?
Yes it is! We had to put up 700 television sets and cameras
and also another huge television to make our QTV appear a perfect
TV channel company. And imagine our plight when we had to show
the whole set getting destroyed in the climax. Every television
set and camera was smashed to smithereens. It is a very well
shot scene a must see!
What do you think about the music of Nayak?
A R Rahman has done a great job! My favourite song is Chalo
chalo mitwa. Shankar has shot the song including the four elements
fire, water, wind and earth and we shot it in places as varied
as Ladakh and Kanyakumari. It took us fifteen days to finish
it.
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