I've had my self destructive heartbreak moments: Shahid Kapoor

Agencies
June 7, 2019

Mumbai, Jun 7: Shahid Kapoor says he has gone through his share of "intense self destruction" after a heartbreak and one way of overcoming negative emotions for him was to channelise them into his performances.

In his latest, "Kabir Singh", Shahid plays a surgeon who descends into self-destruction after a heartbreak.

"I've had my very intense, self destructive, heartbreak, angsty moments, where I've not been in control," Shahid told news agency.

Describing "Kabir Singh" as a phase in everyone's life, the actor says some people are "very explosive about how they're feeling" while others keep it within."

"But that feeling of falling apart, of self destruction for not being able to deal with loss... Only from great love can come great anger. He is a phase in everyone's life and that how I connected with the character."

Shahid says as an actor, he is required to channelise negative emotions, including heartbreak.

"You have to channelise all kinds of negative emotions and turn them into positive, otherwise they can take you down, heartbreak being one of them. You've to learn to channelise these energies, if you can't, you become Kabir Singh!"

The "Haider" actor says everybody breaks at some point but it's one's call to choose that to "define that moment as your permanent reality."

"The worst thing to do is to delve in self pity because it keeps you in a place way longer than you need to be. The first thing I do is to try and run away from it. I don't like to indulge in self pity, it's very dangerous."

While the 38-year-old has often played dark characters, Kabir Singh is an obviously flawed man, the one with anger and territorial issues.

When asked how does he approach a character like him, Shahid says, "by not judging him."

"He's real. He's not trying to fake anything. We do that ourselves also, telling ourselves we are bad in our low phase. That doesn't help because you're giving yourself a wrong message.

"You need to tell yourself that you're a nice person and will come out of this bad phase and find yourself."

Humanising flawed characters can be tricky and the actor says he doesn't need to do that.

"They are real, I need to just represent them. Sometimes reality is a bit too real. 'Haider' and 'Udta Punjab' we're in dark places, Kabir Singh isn't at all. He's an edgy character.

"As a subject matter in totality, it's a happy film. It's romantic and it has its dark parts but obviously what will attract you in those promos are these edgy scenes but the film has a lot more going for it."

Drawing a parallel with his drug addict rapper Tommy Singh in "Udta Punjab", Shaid says, Kabir Singh's reasons to do things aren't selfish.

"I have to find why he's doing what he is doing otherwise I have no understanding of the character I'm doing. Tommy Singh is an empty guy who is self-obsessed. He's only thinking about himself and realises later that he needs to do something for someone else.

"Kabir is the opposite. He loves so purely that he actually destroys himself in that emotion, becomes self destructive."

Remake of the Telugu hit "Arjun Reddy", "Kabir Singh" is directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga. Co-starring Kiara Advani, the film is set to release on June 21.

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News Network
May 10,2020

Mumbai, May 10: Nearly a month after recovering from the coronavirus, actor Zoa Morani says she has donated her blood plasma to do her bit in helping the patients currently suffering from the novel virus. The actor, who was quarantined and kept under medication in April, also urged those who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate their plasma.

"Donated my blood today for the Plasma therapy trials at Nair hospital. It was fascinating! Always a silver lining I suppose. The team there was so enthusiastic and careful. There was a general physician on standby just incase of emergency and the equipment brand new and safe (sic)," Zoa wrote on Instagram on Saturday.

She thanked the doctors for taking care of her and hoped patients benefit from the donation.

"All #Covid19 recovered people can be a part of this trial, to help others covid patients recover! I hope this works #IndiaFightsCorona. They even gave me a certificate and Rs 500. Wont lie, I felt super cool today (sic)," she added.

Zoa, along with her sister Shaza and father, producer Karim Morani had tested positive for coronavirus in April. All three were discharged from the hospital after testing negative last month.

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Agencies
March 1,2020

Washington D.C., Mar 1: British actor Daniel Radcliffe in a recent interview said he is not rushing back to reprise the role of young wizard, Harry Potter, anytime soon.

The 30-year-old star who rose to fame with the first eight films in J.K. Rowling's famed franchise, told Variety that he doesn't like to say no to things but reprising the role in the 'Fantastic Beasts' prequels is not something he's "rushing to do".

"I feel like those films have moved on and they're doing just fine without us. I'm happy to keep it that way. I like what my life is now," Radcliffe told the outlet.

"I'm not saying that I'll never go back into any franchise, but I like the flexibility that I have with my career now. And I don't want to get into a situation where I'm signed up for one series for years in advance," cited Variety as Radcliffe as saying.

Radcliffe is currently gearing up for his upcoming mystery-thriller 'Escape from Pretoria,' a true-life prison drama, where he is set to essay the character Tim Jenkin.

The forthcoming flick is set to hit the theatres on March 6.

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News Network
January 23,2020

Jan 23: Calling himself an optimist who believes in the goodness of people, director Kabir Khan says everything these days is being looked at through the prism of religion but India is about more than that.

The director of blockbusters such as Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Ek Tha Tiger said he is happy he has a platform as a filmmaker to present a counterpoint to the prevailing narrative based on religious fault lines.

"I’m an optimist who believes in the goodness of the people. But yes, there is a certain level of bigotry that has crept in. Everything is being looked at through the prism of religion but India is not about that.

"It sounds like a cliché but when I was growing up, I was not aware of my religion. That was the greatness of this country,” Kabir told news agency.

He said he is a product of a mixed marriage and is pained to see the social fabric being tattered.

“I have celebrated the best that Indian secularism has to offer. But to see the greatness of this country being simplified and broken down into religious fault lines is a painful experience,” he added.

According to Kabir, it is dangerous to see history through the prism of religion, whether in cinema or society. But it is important to revisit history to know what happened and one can always find something that is relevant for the present, he said.

The director, who started as a documentary filmmaker, returns to his roots for a five-episode series on Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army, The Forgotten Army: Azaadi Ke Liye, on Amazon Prime, his most expensive project yet.

Asked whether this is a difficult time for filmmakers, Kabir said he believes art thrives in the time of strife and, as a storyteller, his politics will always reflect in his work.

“Every film has its politics and every filmmaker has to reflect his or her politics. Every film of mine will reflect my politics and it will never change according to the popular mood of the audience. But a film should not be just about that. Politics should be in the layers beneath," he said.

He terms his 2015 Salman Khan-starrer Bajrangi Bhaijaan an "extremely political" film. At face value, it can also be enjoyed as the story of a mute Pakistani girl who drifts into India and is taken back to her homeland by a Hanuman devotee. But there is so much more. The "chicken song", for instance, was a sly reference to the beef ban controversy at the time, he said.

"I won’t say it is a difficult time for me as a filmmaker. It is good that I have a platform where I can talk and present a counterpoint and I refuse to believe that the entire country believes the narrative that is being sent out. There are millions and millions of people, and perhaps the majority, that does not believe. And if I present the counterpoint, they will think about it.”

Discussing his new series, the director said it has always fascinated him that the sacrifice of the men and women who comprised the INA is just a forgotten footnote in history.

“I wanted to make something that stands the test of time. It goes down in posterity,” Khan, who first explored the subject in a Doordarshan documentary 20 years ago, said.

For the documentary, he traveled with former INA officers Captain Lakshmi Sahgal and Captain Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon from Singapore to India via erstwhile Burma, retracing the route that the INA followed.

“The documentary got me a lot of attention and acclaim but the story just never left me. It's actually the first script I ever wrote and I landed up with that script in Bombay from Delhi. I realised very soon that nobody's going to give me a budget of this size to make my first film.

"And then after every film, I would pick up the script and say, ‘Okay, this is the one I want to make’, because this is the story that made me want to become a filmmaker. On the way, I ended up making eight other films but this is really the story that I wanted to make,” he said.

Kabir is happy that the story has come out as a series, not a film, as it would have required to compromise with the budget and other elements.

"Without giving any numbers, this is the most expensive project I have ever worked on… It required that kind of budget."

Kabir believes the INA was responsible for bringing down the morale of the British establishment, which realised it would be impossible to keep the country colonised without the support of the local army.

"There are a lot of debates and discussions about what happened with the INA and the controversies around it. The whole point is that, if you want to judge what the Army did, sure that's your prerogative, but at least get to know what they did. Nobody knows what happened with the Army from 1942 to 1945."

He added that 55,000 men and women of the INA fought for independence and 47,000 of them died.

"Not a single person from that Army was ever taken back into the independent Army, which is such an amazing fact... the fact that the British called them traitors became the narrative and we also started assuming that they were traitors."

"They were the only women's regiment in the whole world 70 years ago. That's what they thought about women's importance in society. I don't know whether they will be happy with what the current situation is," he said.

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