<p>Bollywood actor, director and writer Rajat Kapoor is best known for his roles in ‘Ankhon Dekhi’ and ‘Raghu Romeo’ that won him several awards. The actor likes to work in films that have a definite vision but not those with commercial interests. <br /><br /></p>.<p>He is now looking forward to the release of his latest projects — ‘Kapoor & Sons’ and ‘Mantra’. <br /><br />He is also ready with 2 of his theatre productions — ‘I Don’t Like It. As You Like It’ and ‘What is Done is Done’, both of which are adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays. <br /><br />1 | Books<br />Milan Kundera<br /><br />There may not be a particular book but there are definitely a few writers whom I have continued to like over the last 20 years. <br />There is Milan Kundera, who I think has influenced my work more than I realise. There are Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I never understood poetry — maybe in my next life, I will concentrate<br />on it.<br /><br />2 | Cuisine<br />Dal and roti<br /><br />Everybody around me is a foodie — and I really don’t get what the big deal is about food. It’s just food. You need some fuel for the body. I am no fussy eater — I eat anything I get and relish it. ‘Dal’, ‘sabzi’ and ‘roti’ top the list of my favourite foods. <br /><br /><br />3 | Travel<br />Goa<br /><br />I am not one of those people who would say on their own — ‘Let’s go to Ladakh’. For me, a travel like that disrupts the routine of everyday life and work. But we go on family vacations twice or thrice a year: at least once or twice to Goa and once to Europe. And then, fortunately, my work takes me places. But travel normally becomes very hectic and tiring because one tries to pack in too much in a short time. That is why I love Goa. I can be there for 7 days and do nothing. It’s truly rejuvenating.<br /><br />4 | Theatre<br />Yasujiro Ozu<br /><br />There are directors like Yasujiro Ozu, Ritwik Ghatak, Martin Scorsese, Coen brothers, Billy Wilder, Ernst Lubitsch, Éric Rohmer and Mani Kaul that I admire. All of them are assured in their craft, rooted in their vision of the world, and singular in their expression of that world view. The one person whose work I have consistently admired over the last 30 years is Ratan Thiyam. Everything he creates is full of visual beauty, endowed with tremendous rigour and lyricism. And there are also a few filmmakers who have managed to impress me and those who top the list like Chaplin and Federico Fellini. <br /><br />5 | Philosophy<br />Zen<br /><br />I am inclined towards Zen and Sufism. The idea of being in the moment (which went from Buddhism to Zen) is something to aspire for. <br />The fact is that all we have is just this moment, but we create a fiction of our past and a fear of the future which will never arrive. What will arrive is the next moment and nothing more than that. If one could live only for that moment, and more importantly, only ‘in’ that moment, it would be true bliss.<br /><br />6 | Inspiration<br />Kumar Shahani<br /><br />For the last 30 years, one man who has been a constant source of inspiration for me is my teacher Kumar Shahani. <br />Today, at the age of 75, his childlike enthusiasm, his passion and the desire to make films, but only on his terms, is so<br />moving. <br /><br />7 | Music<br />Pandit Bhimsen Joshi<br />The range of what I like is quite huge. My mornings begin with music by Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and it has been so for years now. But I am also very fond of classic rock and I am a die-hard fan of blues and jazz. Hindi film music, largely from the 1950s and 1960s, find place in my list of favourites. S D Burman, Sahir Ludhianvi and Mohammed Rafi still move me.<br /><br /><em> (As told to Nina C George)</em></p>
<p>Bollywood actor, director and writer Rajat Kapoor is best known for his roles in ‘Ankhon Dekhi’ and ‘Raghu Romeo’ that won him several awards. The actor likes to work in films that have a definite vision but not those with commercial interests. <br /><br /></p>.<p>He is now looking forward to the release of his latest projects — ‘Kapoor & Sons’ and ‘Mantra’. <br /><br />He is also ready with 2 of his theatre productions — ‘I Don’t Like It. As You Like It’ and ‘What is Done is Done’, both of which are adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays. <br /><br />1 | Books<br />Milan Kundera<br /><br />There may not be a particular book but there are definitely a few writers whom I have continued to like over the last 20 years. <br />There is Milan Kundera, who I think has influenced my work more than I realise. There are Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I never understood poetry — maybe in my next life, I will concentrate<br />on it.<br /><br />2 | Cuisine<br />Dal and roti<br /><br />Everybody around me is a foodie — and I really don’t get what the big deal is about food. It’s just food. You need some fuel for the body. I am no fussy eater — I eat anything I get and relish it. ‘Dal’, ‘sabzi’ and ‘roti’ top the list of my favourite foods. <br /><br /><br />3 | Travel<br />Goa<br /><br />I am not one of those people who would say on their own — ‘Let’s go to Ladakh’. For me, a travel like that disrupts the routine of everyday life and work. But we go on family vacations twice or thrice a year: at least once or twice to Goa and once to Europe. And then, fortunately, my work takes me places. But travel normally becomes very hectic and tiring because one tries to pack in too much in a short time. That is why I love Goa. I can be there for 7 days and do nothing. It’s truly rejuvenating.<br /><br />4 | Theatre<br />Yasujiro Ozu<br /><br />There are directors like Yasujiro Ozu, Ritwik Ghatak, Martin Scorsese, Coen brothers, Billy Wilder, Ernst Lubitsch, Éric Rohmer and Mani Kaul that I admire. All of them are assured in their craft, rooted in their vision of the world, and singular in their expression of that world view. The one person whose work I have consistently admired over the last 30 years is Ratan Thiyam. Everything he creates is full of visual beauty, endowed with tremendous rigour and lyricism. And there are also a few filmmakers who have managed to impress me and those who top the list like Chaplin and Federico Fellini. <br /><br />5 | Philosophy<br />Zen<br /><br />I am inclined towards Zen and Sufism. The idea of being in the moment (which went from Buddhism to Zen) is something to aspire for. <br />The fact is that all we have is just this moment, but we create a fiction of our past and a fear of the future which will never arrive. What will arrive is the next moment and nothing more than that. If one could live only for that moment, and more importantly, only ‘in’ that moment, it would be true bliss.<br /><br />6 | Inspiration<br />Kumar Shahani<br /><br />For the last 30 years, one man who has been a constant source of inspiration for me is my teacher Kumar Shahani. <br />Today, at the age of 75, his childlike enthusiasm, his passion and the desire to make films, but only on his terms, is so<br />moving. <br /><br />7 | Music<br />Pandit Bhimsen Joshi<br />The range of what I like is quite huge. My mornings begin with music by Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and it has been so for years now. But I am also very fond of classic rock and I am a die-hard fan of blues and jazz. Hindi film music, largely from the 1950s and 1960s, find place in my list of favourites. S D Burman, Sahir Ludhianvi and Mohammed Rafi still move me.<br /><br /><em> (As told to Nina C George)</em></p>