Shakti Kapoor spoke about playing negative roles.
Shakti Kapoor gained fame in the film industry with his iconic negative roles, but it wasn’t something his parents approved of. In fact, they once walked out of a theatre after watching him play a villain who abused women on screen. Speaking about the incident, Shakti told AlphaNeon Studioz, “When two big films of mine had released, and another big film had just released called Insaniyat Ke Dushman, so I told my parents to go and watch the film. Both my parents went to watch it. However, when the film started my first scene showed me pulling the dupatta of a girl.”
Recalling his parents’ reaction, he said, “My father immediately told my mom to get up and leave the theatre. He said, ‘he used to do this outside and now he’s doing this on the big screen also. Look what he’s doing. I don’t want to watch this film.’ They called me and scolded me. What type of roles are you doing? And see with whom you’re doing such things? They told me that I should do roles of a good person and star alongside actors like Hema Malini, and Zeenat Aman. Why are you doing roles of a Gunda? they would tell me.”
However, Shakti Kapoor, who had started seeing success in films after a long struggle, did not want to pay heed to his parents’ advice, as he told them, “I told them you have given birth to me, and you have only given me this face. After looking at this face no one is giving me role of a good person or a hero.”
In an old conversation, Shakti’s daughter and actor Shraddha Kapoor had also admitted that she was unhappy with her father playing negative roles when she was little. “I used to shout at him for doing villain roles. I used to be sad about it (playing villain). But then my mother explained he is just acting,” Shraddha said in an interview with PTI.
Shakti Kapoor is known for playing iconic negative roles in the 1990s, including Crime Master Gogo in Andaz Apna Apna, Ranjeet in Qurbani, Bulla in Gunda, and several others that went on to define his legacy as one of Bollywood’s most memorable villains.
Curated by Dr. Elena Rodriguez
