Mirzya star Harshvardhan Kapoor: At 16, I predicted Anurag Kashyap will change the film industry

Harshvardhan Kapoor is slouching on the couch. It's not the interviews - only his fourth of the day - but the antibiotics that are making him feel a bit drowsy. But the flu won't come in the way for film promotions, as Kapoor sits down for a 20-minute chat in which he talks about his favourite films and filmmakers, and his friendship and future collaborations with Ship of Theseus director Anand Gandhi.

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Your whole family had come together for the music launch of Mirzya. Were you bit overwhelmed by the occasion?

I'm very calm. I don't get too hassled. I was just upset that I was not my 100 per cent health wise. But I think I did well, made the most of it.

There your father spoke of how you don't listen to him, that you are the giving him career advice and that he can't figure you out.

Yes, everybody is asking me about the not listening to him bit.

Tell us about the rapport you have with him.

It is not very paternal. It is based on friendship 100 per cent. He was not there for the first eight or 10 years. It was the 1990s and he was busy shooting. I have basically been brought up by women. Mum (Sunita) as a parent; and then the sisters (Sonam and Rhea) because we all went to the same school, Arya Vidya Mandir in Juhu.

The relationship with him really started after 2001-02. I really started altering his decisions after 2007-08 for I was so cinema-literate for my age. I made sure he did Slumdog Millionaire. He didn't know who Danny Boyle was. And I had a poster of Trainspotting on my bedroom door. He knew who George Lucas, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg were and those are like the stalwarts. Before Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle had made Trainspotting, The Beach, Shallow Grave, more indie, arthouse films, the kind of films I like. I read the script of Slumdog Millionaire in my bathroom because I get distracted in my bedroom. It was a page-turner.

What films you grow up watching and that shaped your cinematic sensibilities?

My dad had a great collection of films. First he had a VHS collection, which turned to laser discs. There was a lot of Kevin Costner films because he was a star then. What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Edward Scissorhands were the films I was watching as an eight-year-old and going crazy. Shortly thereafter DVDs happened and that's when I completely lost it. I remember my dad returned from a trip with some 100 DVDs. First I saw Hannibal, after that I saw Silence of the Lambs. There was The Godfather, then the trilogy. As a kid I didn't like it so much, but in college, I saw it with my girlfriend and I was like 'Wow'. I saw all of Boyle's films. I would go to MAMI Film Festival as a 14-year-old. I saw Ameros Perros, Inarritu's early films, from there I moved to Alfonso Cuaron. With Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I discovered Charlie Kaufman.

You have grown up on films that we hope get made here more frequently. Did you ever feel like you didn't fit into Bollywood with the kind of films you love?

Until I was 16, I didn't think I had a life and career in this country. Then things started changing so dramatically. But I swear I predicted it as a 16-year-old; I told my dad that Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane are the guys who are going to change the face of our industry. I remember I saw Udaan in 2010. I had a flight to take to Singapore that very night and I was late to the airport because I wanted to finish the film. I hugged Vikram thereafter. I said whatever film this guy makes I'm going to do it. And now I'm working with him on Bhavesh Joshi. So yes I told dad about Vikram and Anurag. At the time Kashyap made Black Friday and Gulaal, nobody was making these films. For me, he was a revolutionary.

Is that why you chose to assist Anurag Kashyap on Bombay Velvet?

Anurag and I have a very interesting relationship because he stopped talking to me for some time after Bombay Velvet. I was not an assistant director (AD). I was an intern. I was not well in Sri Lanka and I had already signed Mirzya. I came back. Also Bombay Velvet wasn't helping me in anyway (He worked for four-and-a-half months). There is this preconceived notion that all of us have to become ADs if we want to act which I realised is complete bullshit. I decided I'm never going to listen to anybody in my life ever again and do what I think.

Who told you to assist?

Arjun (Kapoor, his cousin) and Sonam! It is so silly. They did the same thing so I thought I might as well try it. So anybody who is reading this and wants to become an actor, especially someone who is from the film industry and knows how films function, there is absolutely no need to get into assistant direction. It is a myth, it is rubbish. If you want to become an actor, Excel sheets and call times aren't going to help you. You need to watch films, do acting workshops and travel the world to get a fresh perspective.

So you think you can do the kind of films you really like watching here?

I am somebody who likes to do one thing at a time. I am 25 years old. When I'm 35, if I have done eight really distinctive films, then that's enough. And I'm doing three so far which are all exceptions to the rule. Mirzya, Bhavesh Joshi and I'm talking to Sriram Raghavan. I'm good for the next two to three years.

You've said you like the work of Aamir Khan and Ranbir Kapoor. The former has taken his time find himself.

Luckily, I had the backing and I have had (Rakeysh Omprakash) Mehra to start with. I don't think Mehra would have decided to make the film with me if my sensibilities weren't the way they are. It has a lot to do the way I think and the fact that he thinks I can deliver. I definitely think I am an actor that thinks may be sometimes more than I should. I think Mehra likes that. I think to a point where it is set in my mind and then let it go.

Sonam said in an interview that you have learned from her mistakes. Being an AD was one, what were the others?

Don't do anything that you don't believe in. She believed in Saawariya and Delhi-6 which I think is a very beautiful film. OK, sometimes a film may not completely come together but as a student of film - I was 19 and studying screenwriting at the Chapman University in California -I instantly connected with AR Rahman's music, Binod Pradhan's cinematography and the kind of stories that Mehra was trying to weave into one plot. It also made me miss home.

Those films didn't do well commercially and she got swayed. So she did films which she didn't believe in only to come back to films that she did like Raanjhanaa, Khoobsurat and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag that did it for her. I don't see myself getting swayed if Mirzya doesn't work at the box office. It will be very depressing, extremely. But I will move on.

You prepared for a year-and-a-half for Mirzya and then shot it over the course of a year. Not every film you do will be this intensive. Have you come to terms that not all films you do will be like this?

I'm really struggling with that. I really like the way Mirzya was made. I think it was perfect. I rather feel like, 'Oh My God, it is taking so much time to release, then f**k I wish I had more time to prepare'. There is no moment in the film that I would change. Trust me, I'm very critical. I may be would add one or two things but that's my indulgence with the narrative. In terms of how I have played every scene and the way I have imagined it, it is in complete sync.

I hope I feel the same way about Bhavesh Joshi. We have shot at a breakneck speed. We are done with half the film. Vikram is from that independent film school. He is like your hair and make-up are fine, these are your lines, and now these are your new lines and I'm like, 'What, What are you doing?'

I had opportunity for more method with Mirzya. Yes, I lived away from home for a month for Bhavesh Joshi, but I still had food from my house. With Mirzya, I lived as a stable boy's life for a month and a half.

You studied screenwriting in US. Did you also undergo training in acting?

Within the BA programme, I did a year of acting. Here, I have done three workshops. I went to Alok Ulfat, this actor from Dehradun. Anand Gandhi (National Award-winning director of Ship of Theseus) recommended him to me. He and I are very good friends. We are going to do a film together. The script for it will be ready either in 2022 or next year, that's the way Gandhi is, he is unpredictable.

He is a wizard. He is the most intelligent human being I have met in my life. Every time I meet him he starts with his biology gibberish and I'm like 'I don't understand anything that you are saying, so just tell me what the story of the film is'. I think sci-fi is a genre Anand will excel in. Let's also remember that he wrote the first 50 episodes of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. He is so intelligent that he can do whatever he wants.

Every actor has at least one opportunity in their life to take all the money in the world and give it to one director, in my case I would give it to Anand Gandhi. He has the potential to be the genre-breaking, genre-defining director of this generation. I'm talking about a big sci-fi monument. Hopefully we will do something so simple that it is easy for everybody to understand.

( The writer tweets as @suhani84 )