They are the latest newbies on the Hindi cinemascape: Harshvardhan Kapoor, son of Anil Kapoor, and Saiyami Kher, granddaughter of yesteryear actor Usha Kiron, co-star in Mirzya, a recreation of the famous Mirza-Sahiban love legend.
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, of Rang De Basanti and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag fame, has interpreted the story in an individualistic way, by showing the centuries-old tale of their unrequited love moving on to their story concluding in 2016.
Harshvardhan is a headstrong young man, completely convinced about his beliefs in cinema and his own approach to his profession, yet okay with his ideas being challenged by audiences as well as the future, while Saiyami has a more balanced approach to Indian cinema, with loads of love and respect for classic as well as current cinema, that too for the right reasons.
Philosophy on films
Harshvardhan, a shade clinical even in his demeanour, is confident that he made the right choice when he accepted Mirzya. “My first meeting with Rakeysh-sir was in 2008. I was 18 and still in college, confused about what I wanted to do in life. He offered me the film and I turned it down, stating all my reasons. Then I went to Los Angeles to do my BA in Screenwriting, came back and assisted Anurag Kashyap on Bombay Velvet for four months, and then asked Rakeysh-sir if his offer was still open. So he decided to make this film first instead of other projects he was planning.”
Saiyami, who has done the Telugu film Rey last year, in that sense, is not a debutante, but what she liked about her first Hindi film was the fact that the entire team made her comfortable. “We even had a mock-shoot together,” she says. “Rakeysh-sir believes in prepping, and is a director who loves to impart knowledge if you are interested.”
So while Harshvardhan began to internalise his character, which was not too difficult as he is reserved by nature, Saiyami, fresh from a mainstream masala film down South, got involved in things she was interested in about cinema. “I would sit with Rakeysh-sir and the music team through the music sessions, because I am crazy about music,” she reveals. “I also was, with Rakeysh-sir’s permission, as good as an assistant to my DOP (Director of Photography), a young and talented Polish lad named Pawel Dyllus.”
Since Harshvardhan has learnt screenwriting, does he plan to utilise his education in the future? “I do plan to be writer and director,” he admits. “But as an actor too, it helps me choose what films I want to make. In fact, my favourite part of a scene or a script is the word ‘why? ‘I want to know why a scene or a line is written, how it will sound the most effective, and also how it affects the next scene.”
Did he have to unlearn anything after studying cinema in LA? “No, why should that happen?” he asks, shaking his head. “Rakeysh and Vikramaditya Motwane, who is directing my next film Bhavesh Joshi, are what I call world filmmakers. They tell Indian stories in a progressive way.”
When asked why he has severe reservations about commercial Hindi cinema, which has made his father what he is today, Harshvardhan says, “I was born in 1990, and when I came of age, I watched films that released then, like Dil Chahta Hai and Lagaan at 11, or Rang De Basanti at 16. I have never really been into 90s cinema, which was simply for entertainment, and for some valid social reasons. I cannot relate with a Ram Lakhan or a Tezaab that were made when my father was a huge star.”
Harshvardhan declares Parinda as his favourite Anil Kapoor film, but more as a movie and for the performances of Nana Patekar and Jackie Shroff. “My father played to the gallery in it,” he declares. His favourite Anil Kapoor performances are Virasat, Nayak, Pukaar and from the older lot, Mr. India, which he terms “experimental for those times.”
Love for classics
Saiyami, on the other hand, strikes a different note. “I love old cinema and music for their honesty and purity, and I am a sucker for good lyrics,” she says. “I adore Amitabh Bachchan-sir, and his recent tweet appreciating the Mirzya trailer was overwhelming for me. I met Waheeda Rehman-ji recently, and she said that our generation was lucky because we get to perform in diverse genres. I agree and like the fact that we have lots of different commercial cinema now, like Kapoor & Sons, Neerja or Pink.”
She reconciles the enduring quality of older cinema vis-à-vis today’s movies to the quality of lives led by older artistes and technicians. “I spoke to Shaukat-ji (mother to Shabana Azmi and mother-in-law of Saiyami’s paternal aunt, actor Tanvi Azmi) and she asked me, ‘Aap log aaj kal mohabbat kyoon nahin karte (Why doesn’t your generation love unconditionally)?’ Yes, we do have tick boxes even in relationships. I guess that explains the paradox,” she replies.
However, Saiyami does concede that while she may be ready to do a mindless masala film for reasons that may apply for a specific script, she prefers sensible mainstream cinema like Mirzya. “But I love being on a set, while Harshvardhan may be comfortable doing select films. I have done it all, danced and enacted sings in buses and on roads in my first film,” she says.
Harshvardhan is into method acting, and has stayed away from luxury and his family for his next film Bhavesh Joshi. He likes the challenge of physically and emotionally changing himself for each role. He also concedes that Mirzya is a “romantic musical action drama” for all, but is worried about its acceptance by the audience. “That is more important for me than my future image, which will develop only over time,” he says.
I noticed the pair sitting together in earlier interviews and finding that three of five questions were directed at Harshvardhan. What does Saiyami have to say about this edge that her hero has — after all, Anil Kapoor is still current coin, while her own grandmother, a heartthrob then, is not known to most of today’s generation?
“That is okay,” she says with a smile. “After all, it is a love story and it cannot be made without my character, especially in this story, which is told through Sahiban’s perspective. Harsh will bring in the audience as his father’s fans will also come to watch the film, and so they will see me too. And if the film does well, I too will do well.”
Harshvardhan is now in talks with Sriram Raghavan for a film, while Saiyami has signed on for a Tamil-Telugu Mani Ratnam bilingual.