‘2009 was the most productive year of my life’

Kunal Kapoor has been missing from the silver screen for a year. However, the lanky star was making full use of the time - learning to fly a plane, training in parkour, working on his vocals to play a singer, and beefing up for a superhero role.

“I wasn’t on a sabbatical. I may have not shot for one year but it has been the most productive year of my life,” said Kapoor.

He was last seen in a full-fledged role in the Madhuri Dixit-starrer Aaja Nachle in 2007. After that, Kapoor only made special appearances in 2008 in films like Bachna Ae Haseeno and Welcome to Sajjanpur. He was missing from the silver screen in 2009.

“I was doing a lot of things so I wouldn’t call it a hiatus. I’ve had the chance to work on myself as an actor in all this while; to fly a plane, to learn sky diving and work on stories that I really want to be a part of. There is an action film (Doga) that I’m doing, so I was learning parkour (an acrobatic street sport) for it,” Kapoor told IANS.

“I was working ... there is never really a dull moment. It’s just that I didn’t have a release for a while. As an actor, it is exciting for me to have lots of releases but at the same time, there have got to be movies that I really want to be a part of,” he added.

Kapoor will next be seen playing a young politician in Rahul Dholakia’s Lamhaa. Releasing on July 16, the film also stars Sanjay Dutt, Bipasha Basu and Anupam Kher.

Set in Kashmir, it deals with the issue of militancy and the presence of the army in the region.

So did he take flying lessons for a movie, as has been reported? “That was a passion. It was something I had really wanted to do for a really long time,” he replied.

The 34-year-old is learning to fly a single engine Cessna 172 at Sagar in Madhya Pradesh. So has he mastered the controls completely?

“It is a never-ending process. You keep adding hours and as much as you can do. There’s no fixed amount of days. You keep doing it and you keep learning,” said the actor, who debuted with M F Husain’s Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities.

Kapoor is now trying for a pilot’s license.

“I don’t have one right now but that’s what I’m working towards. The only thing I am petrified of is giving exams ... I haven’t given exams in a long time. That should be a whole new experience now.”

The actor is also working hard on his physique to bulk up for Anurag Kashyap’s superhero movie Doga.

“Doga is a process and it’s going to take a while. Doga is a character who is 25 kilos of muscle more than what I am. I have to work towards that so I’ve just begun right now.”

He is also working on his vocals for Navdeep Singh’s movie Chamkila, based on the “Punjabi music world” and shows a “never seen before, raw side of Punjab”.

“I play a singer in the movie. I am terrible at it but I’m working on it (too),” he said.

“I’ve never felt as sure about myself as an actor. I am really excited about starting new stuff now ... life for me has never been about one thing.We make life more about work than anything else. It’s about discovering a lot of things. There’s so much to it and that’s what I am working at,” Kapoor said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 29^th, 2010.