Dinesh Kamath's column 'How Shahid Kapoor got converted from Zero to Hero' that was published in Newsband

Movie World

How Shahid Kapoor got converted from Zero to Hero

By Dinesh Kamath

Someone wanted to know the films in which Shahid was most and least stylish. For your information, for the first ten years of his career, he didn’t care much about his look. Hence he was never invited to walk for their brands earlier. In fact, the list of his ‘least-stylish’ films will be rather too long. In films, his focus is on getting the character right. He personally liked his look in ‘Padmaavat’, ‘Rangoon’ and the upcoming film, ‘Arjun Reddy’. The actor forgets himself while playing a role in the film and he gets entirely inside the character.

Shahid Kapoor had started as a background dancer in films like Dil Toh Pagal Hai, before making his debut in Ishq Vishk. It was during the making of this film that he discovered himself as an actor. He constantly went out of his comfort zone and never played safe. But surprisingly, he found success in choices that were unconventional and brave.

The actor has featured in films like Kaminey, Haider, Udta Punjab etc. He just believes in trying new things, even if one is swimming against the tide. This is a strange trait that he possesses since everybody always makes a safe choice because the profession in itself is so unpredictable. But the strange thing is that Shahid always found success in choices that weren’t safe. He just tries with full conviction, no matter what the end result is. That’s the secret of his success.

Shahid believes that swimmers who swim against the tide would be stronger than the ones who swim with it. That’s the reason why many consider him as the strongest swimmer.

The story of how he achieved his first breakthrough is very interesting. Having noticed Kapoor in the Aryans' music video "Aankhon Mein", the producer Ramesh Taurani was keen to cast him in a film. However, upon meeting him, Taurani thought Kapoor, who was 20 years old at the time, to be too young and underweight to become an actor, and encouraged him to wait for a few years. Kapoor, meanwhile, turned down a lead role in N. Chandra's sex comedy Style in hopes of working with Taurani. Taurani found a suitable project for Kapoor in the teenage romance Ishq Vishk (2003), which Ken Ghosh was directing for his company. Kapoor, who trained extensively for a bulkier physical build, was eventually hired. Before beginning work on the film, he attended acting workshops with Naseeruddin Shah and Satyadev Dubey.

Ishq Vishk tells the story of Rajiv Mathur (Kapoor), a high-school student who engages in a romantic affair with two classmates of contrasting personalities (played by Amrita Rao and Shenaz Treasurywala). Kapoor was attracted to the idea of playing an unlikable lead since it was a departure from the traditional portrayal of teenage heroes in Indian films. The film proved to be a sleeper hit at the box office and won Kapoor the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut. After that there was no looking back for him.