My biggest hit came when Kareena and I broke up: Shahid Kapoor

Actor says his personal life does not affect his professional life.

“Behind every successful man, there is a woman,” goes the saying; but while this might be true for many, it stands meaningless for actor Shahid Kapoor, who thinks his personal life does not affect his professional one. In an interview with the Hindustan Times, Shahid said confessed that his most successful film came at a time when he and Kareena had broken up.

“I don’t think my personal life has anything to do with my professional life. In fact, when I was in my most stable relationship [dating Kareena Kapoor], I had many unsuccessful films. My most successful film, Jab We Met [2007], came when Kareena and I had broken up,” said Shahid. “I can only see it from a practical point of view and I feel that some choices didn’t work for me.”

Known for his boy-next-door looks, Shahid rose to fame with his debut movie Ishq Vishk (2003) alongside actors Amrita Rao and Shenaz Treasurywala. His sizzling dance moves and impactful acting made him shine in Bollywood and landed him back-to-back film offers. Although his career graph has been rather unsteady, the actor feels choices and decisions made don’t always work as planned.

“Sometimes I made choices like doing Vivah, Jab We Met or Kaminey — all three of them were risks in their own ways. One of them was with Sooraj ji [Barjatya], when a lot of people felt that this kind of cinema was not relevant after Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon. I did a film with Imtiaz [Ali], who was a new director, and I did a commercial film with Vishal sir [Bhardwaj]. But all three things worked for me,” he said. “Then when I did Mausam, I thought I was making a great decision and it was potentially a great decision if it would have turned out to be a great film. But it doesn’t mean that I will change the way I think or the way I work.”

Mausam might have flopped at the box office, but that does not debilitate Shahid’s passion for acting. He is currently excited about this upcoming projects – Rajkumar Santoshi’s Phata Poster Nikla Hero and Prabhudeva’s Rambo Rajkumar. “I’ve just pushed it all out. I wanted to get on the sets and have fun, because for six months, I was at home getting fried.”

All set for his big return to the silver screen, Shahid said he was not gone anywhere  and nor does he ever plan to leave. “I’ve not gone anywhere and I’m not going anywhere. I’m returning after a year and if you’re making a comeback after a year, it should be grand,” exclaimed Shahid. “It’s different, it’s new, it’s fresh, it’s a new version of me, and I’m excited about all these things.”

Known for falling in and out of love with his co-actors, the 32-year-old rebuffed rumours about a tiff between him and Priyanka Chopra. Priyanka and Shahid were rumoured to be dating in 2009, during the making of Kaminey. “I don’t know who says all this. I have no issues with Priyanka at all. She’s a fantastic actor and of course, I want to work with her.”

However, the latest gossip is to be believed, Priyanka has bailed herself out of the Ekta Kapoor-produced film, Milan Talkies, which stars Shahid in the lead role. When Shahid, who replaced actor Imran Khan in the lead, was approached to give a statement on this development, he said, “I don’t know [about this]. As far as I’ve been told, nobody has been cast right now [for the female lead]. I have no idea about what the earlier status on the film was.”

Priyanka or no Priyanka, we wish Shahid a great comeback and hope he charms audiences the way he did in his previous films.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2013.

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