Kunal Kapoor has been in the film industry for nearly two decades now and has done around 15-odd films so far, which is not too many. But the actor insists that it was all a well-thought-of decision.
Kunal, who made his Bollywood debut in 2004 with Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities, says, “When I started off, two things happened. One, when you are successful, everybody wants to box you and cast you in similar roles, which was something I did not want to do. Secondly, the content in the industry has changed a lot in the last 15 years. When I was starting out, I found the characters very unrelatable.”
Adding further, the 43-year-old actor asserts that roles back then were divided simply into good and bad. “I found them as a hero was a hero, the villain was a villain, there was nothing in between. Every film made was about aspirational NRI characters that were wearing particular kinds of clothes, everything was shot outside India. Those were characters I honestly didn’t get, I was looking for ones that were more relatable and flawed. What’s happened in the last few years is that more of these characters are being written,” says Kapoor.
Recently, Kunal found such a role in the digital series ‘The Empire,’ in which he essayed the role of Mughal Emperor Babur. And the actor has been receiving praise for it.
“The way he was written, he was very flawed, not somebody who was strong, but weak too and vulnerable. 15 years back, if a character like this would have been written, it would have been in different ways. That to me was something I was looking for. The response has been overwhelming. We expected it to get a good response, but this has really surprised us,” the actor concluded.
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