Kunal Kapoor is one of the most versatile but underutilized actors in Bollywood. The actor has been critically acclaimed many times and his recent performance as Babur follows the suit.
Grew Up Watching Movies
Kunal’s love for movies is inherited from his father. His father had a video cassette player and a huge collection of movies. Every night at 08:00 PM, he used to watch movies together with his family. He has grown up watching the work of Govinda, Amitabh Bachchan, SRK, Jerry Lewis & Dilip Kumar. He would often role-play the iconic duo of Jay and Veeru with his cousin.
Kunal Kapoor joined his father in his construction business in his college days, but he didn’t feel content. He then started his business of exporting mangoes to Hong Kong. Unconsent there as well, he got into the stock market. After a year and a half in the market, he still didn’t feel like it was his calling.
He was brainstorming for the next profession to get into when his friend who worked in a production house called. She informed him they were looking for someone with long hair & hoped that he hadn’t cut his. He went to her office for auditions, cleared it, and found himself shooting for the advertisement. Standing in front of the cameras, he realized that movie sets were where he belonged, but he wasn’t sure in what capacity he was going to be there.
When he told his decision to his friends, they were supportive but also asked him to be cautious. They advised him to have a backup plan as becoming an actor is not a cakewalk. It was a gamble for Kunal.
Making his decision to get into the industry, he started working as a production assistant and then as an assistant director. For three years, he did that along with learning acting from Barry John in theatres. While working as a production assistant, Kunal would drop his photographs at various studios to get into modelling projects and earn some extra money.
M.F. Hussain chanced upon the photographs he had dropped at Kunal Kapoor’s (Shashi Kapoor’s son) office. And that’s how Kunal got the role in Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities.
Kunal’s journey in Bollywood resembles a roller coaster ride. He has seen both success and occasional failure. After Rang De Basanti happened, he was seen as a promising actor. He had already signed a few films with YRF, none of them worked, which finished him. Even before entering the industry, he had decided that he wished to do dynamic roles and not stay typecast in one genre.
Therefore, he doesn’t look at his life in retrospect; he is content with all the decisions he made in his career.
He doesn’t like working with people who don’t have any passion for acting. There have been times when he’s on sets, and he found himself asking why he was there. He promised himself never to get into such situations again, even if he ended up waiting for two years.
He loves challenging stories and roles, and he loves when his character is grey instead of pure black or white. That makes him feel that the characters are relatable and real. With his passion, persistence & patience, he was able to continue his journey in Bollywood. As he grew in his craft, he seldom seeks validation now. He does movies he likes rather than those that would be popular. With such decisions, today, he is called an interesting actor.
Kunal Kapoor has been interested in getting into the social service sector for some time in 2012. He wanted to bring a change in the NGO sector when he noticed the difficulty in reaching out to donors. He met Varun Seth at that time, and they both, along with Zaheer Adenwala, decided to use technology to bring donors close to the needy people.
Ketto is an online fundraising campaign page to raise money for charity, medical cases, or personal projects.
During the pandemic, Ketto raised about 109 crores to help the people with their issues. They helped medical workers get medical kits, provided groceries to the poor, helped migrant laborers reach homes, among many other things.
Kunal Kapoor knows that he is in a craft where he has to evolve and improve his craft. As a creative person, he’s ready to face the rejections that may come from the audience just as much as he’s ready for acceptance. He wants to see a change in the industry, and therefore, he’s working on himself and his skills. He loves storytelling and wishes to show some interesting & challenging ones, which is why he is going to open his production house soon.
