 One, two, three, four. Jaya, jaya, jaya, jaya. Bak chan, bak chan, bak chan, bak chan. Jaya, jaya, jaya, jaya. Bak chan, bak chan, bak chan, bak chan. That's her song. Na na na na na na na na na na. Josh! We'll go back to her stupid directions, yet it's on Corbin. Jaya Bak Chan. So, I've said this before. I'll say it again. I want to know what it's like to be a woman. Say it again. I want to know what it's like to be a woman. I just said it was Jaya Bak Chan, but I really do. I want to know at every level of existence, what is that like to be a woman? You know, God's a woman. Ariana Grande has a song about it. My wife wouldn't disagree with you. Ma Durga, baby. Today, we got an interesting one. We got one of those tape cast. Oh, yeah! Got it. Yes, you pressed the button. We started doing those very early. The first one we had was with Kalki and Anurag. Yeah, I think we did one with Vicky and his wife. We did. This is Shahid Kapoor and... And Rajkumar Harani, who is now doing that new film with Shahrukh Khan. He's the director of 3 Idiots, PK. And so, I thought it was... I'm assuming they've worked together. I don't think so. No. Because he's only done five films, I believe. Like those films that were in the teaser? Or alls were it? Those are all the films. So, he's only ever done bangers. Wow. So, talk about a track record. Seriously. So, I think that's why everybody wants to work with him. And that's what everybody says. Because he specifically writes out all of his own stuff and then does all the preparation, directs it, and then edits it. And so, he takes a long time per. And that's why he only has five or six credits. God bless him. That's crazy. Cool. But anyways, we love these. Yeah, this is always great. We enjoy these a lot. I think it's a really interesting format. You don't have a host ruining the vibe. We are the first bakras on this show. I'm really worried. I am also very worried. This beautiful... Let's go. I have no idea. Yeah, neither do I. Should we just... Yeah, let's make it presently. We'll see what happens. Good afternoon, gentlemen. Welcome to Tatecast. My name is... Well, never mind who I am. What matters is who you are. Shahid Kapoor meets Rajkumar Hirani, one of Bollywood's most celebrated filmmakers, one of Bollywood's most respected writers, and one of Bollywood's most underrated actors. One of his finest performances as an actor can be seen in an ad for Febikol. Raju Hirani meets Shahid Kapoor, arguably one of the most versatile actors of this generation. From playing Shy Loverboy Braem to an unstable drug addict pop star, Tommy, to draping a dupatta around a Shwaryarai. Shy Kapoor can do it all. Gentlemen, what have you like to boxes? The boxes contain questions. You pick the topic and answer the questions. Absolutely. Choose failures. I'm here to take you on a journey. I guess he doesn't have any, though. At least not in film. There is no limit to their creativity. They are the room breakers. The no-makers. Seems like a sweet guy, honestly. Yeah. Let's find out what makes them go beyond. Grey goose. Failure. It sounds pretty simple. Except we're doing it with cassettes, which used to exist while I was a teenager, which makes me feel rather old. Same. Don't worry, Shahid. You'll feel older soon. So, sir, I'm going to start with the topic of relationships. I hope the tape recorder doesn't eat your tape. I'm scaredy. Now, Mr. Hirani, in an industry like yours, what do you feel are the qualities that define your true friends, the ones you value the most? At least I can speak for myself. I think they're so obsessed or caught up with their own work that all our relationships are usually with people you're working with. If I have to look at my life I've spent, I think, more time with Abhija Joshi than I've spent with my wife. So, if my wife is hearing this, I'm going to be in trouble. You can say Raju. Raju also does that. Usually, they say, you know, you make friends when you're in school or in colleges. And those are your true friends. Later, all the kind of acquaintances, you never make friends after that. But I feel I've made friends after that whom I've spent time with. Like with Baman, also, I've taken some tea and Palli days. He'll just call up and say, like, once our film was being screened in UN. Lagerh Munna Bhai was in the UN and I was in New York. He happened to call me. He asked me, where are you? And he was close to my office in Bandra. He said, where are you? I'm close to your office. I'll join you for lunch. I said, I'm going to sit in New York. What are you doing? I said, Lagerh Munna Bhai is screened at the UN. So, why don't you tell me? I would have come. I said, come, come. He said, I thought he was joking. Then he spoke for five minutes and disconnected. Next day, one hour before the screenings happened, I'm about to leave. There's a knock on the outer door. I was standing there. Wow. And I couldn't believe that. Wow. There. And we had such a lovely time. So, I guess our work defines our relationships. But it's a great space to be in. A great space to be in. The industry's a hard place to find friends. So, what do you want? Real friends. Real friends. I have no idea what's in it anyway. Shall I begin with the same relationships? Meera won't be as safe as I thought. Here we go. That sound is nostalgic. Yeah. Do you think stardom affects relationships? Tell me, you had an arranged marriage. How were you able to gauge that Meera was interested in the human being and not in the star? Interesting. Stardom impact relationships. I didn't even know he was in an arrangement. Whatever profession you're in will have an impact on your relationship, especially if you're working a lot. Stardom comes with a lot of things which are probably beneficial for an actor in many ways. But they're quite a burden for his life partner. A lot of things I also didn't know will come along with being a star. I was 20, 21 when I did Ishwish. And at that time, all I wanted to do was be in front of the camera and be able to perform and act and do what I've grown up watching these great actors and these great movies. And I just want to be a part of that. I mean, I love what I do so much that what comes with it is something I've learned to live with. I'm not very natural with it. For example, I was a bit of introvert. So to be able to interact and engage with people was something I found very difficult in the beginning. Because even though my father's Pankaj Kapoor, but my parents separated when I was very young and I didn't really grow up with him, so nobody knew I'm his son. So when I entered the fraternity, I was pretty much an outsider. Interesting. That answer to the question we had about it. Interesting. I think a lot of the people within the fraternity have grown up together. So I'm guessing you grew up with his mom? The kids of stars and makers and producers or distributors or whatever. So they kind of know each other. There's that fraternity feeling between them. You know what Muhammad Ali had once said? I want to go to a place where nobody knows me. I want to find a girl, go her, marry her, get her back to where I come from, and then tell her who I am. That's amazing. Actually, I think that sums up deep down what most actors feel because you always wonder whether the people you're meeting are first of all receiving you as the personality as opposed to wanting to discover who you are. So yeah, so when we... So you never felt threatened? Who am I dating? I mean, how... Are you dating an actor? Yeah, I mean, honestly, when I was single, almost everybody I met, of course that's the first thought that crosses your mind. Is she here to meet me or is she here to... And that holds true for other people as well, as friends as well. Is he wanting to know me because I am Shahid Kapoor? So that thought is always there. Absolutely. I think it's simple, I didn't overthink it. And yeah, when I met Meera, actually she is very unassuming. I honestly didn't know whether we'd be able to talk also because she was 21 and I was 34. And so, you know, she's from Delhi. I'm from Bombay. I'm an actor. She's just passed out of college. So I really didn't know what we would talk about, but we ended up speaking for seven hours. We really got along and there was no conversation about movies. There was no conversation or questions or curiosity towards how is my life? What happens in the film industry? What is it when you go to star parties? And how is it when you're on a set? How do you feel when you come out of air? What do people come running? None of those questions were asked. So that's what got you? Yeah, completely. Because sir, you spend your entire life on set. You're in a bubble, treated in a certain way which is so different from reality. So the one thing that you're craving as an actor is to talk normally. I'm walking in the middle of the street. We eat some street food. We go on a drive and listen to music. We talk about life. Those are the things that you're craving. Now you will end up giving a lot of tips to all these people who are watching this show. Every girl will come in with every actor they want to talk about cinema. Well, if it works, God bless them. Because I think that's what most actors want. At least I hope they do. Because that's what makes you feel normal. So yeah, so it was very normal with Neera. And I'm sure there's a lot of things which come along with being a star which were difficult for her to adjust to. Like the first few times she went out, I used to always keep telling her that I think you should take a security person with you. She used to always look at me like, what's wrong with you? Why? You know? So I was like... Until? And then after four, five times she went to the mall once. She went to the supermarket once. And she came back saying maybe there are people sitting at me and they randomly walking up to me and touching me and all. And so, you know, so... So I was like, yeah, now you know why. And remember there was an article in the paper which said that why does Meera need a security guard? She's not a star. You know, and she came to show it to me. Yeah, I wish it was that simple. I insist that this happens, then they will perceive me as if I'm trying to be a star. Professional hazard. Why is it professional hazard? And I'm sure there were many things like that. And our biggest concern was Misha. Because we wanted her to feel normal. And that will always be our concern. And I will always ask myself this question whether I have bolded her because of who I am. And that's something I have to live with and try and undo as much as I can. But I can't change it. Now I have to ask. So let's talk about... So I think many of these don't... Failures. Failures, that's what I said. Do not please Aaroh sir, man. I mean, you shouldn't have done that. I'm surprised you picked this one. What's the one thing you're comfortable cheating on, Mr. Hirani? I didn't say a good thing or a bad person. Yeah, exactly. What's the one thing you're comfortable cheating on? If my wife is listening to this, I'm very curious to hear this answer. What I do cheat on her is... I actually love her with myself a lot of times. Sometimes I actually come home and I'm thinking I want to be with myself so I just get into the car alone with some music and drive down. I've driven from where she knows or she'll discover this with this show. I don't know. But I'm curious to know. I've done that twice at some nights just traveling. That's pretty normal. I've heard a lot of people do that. I've never used that. I can totally connect with that. My commute is not very far, so... Then you need to stay with yourself. I remember when I was getting married I was shooting Kolda Punjab. So I was in Amaritsar and Meera was living in Delhi with her parents. So it was just a 40-minute flight and we were at that stage getting to know each other. She said, should I come see you? I said no for the first 10 days. I don't want you to come. She at that time was so thrown off because she was like, what kind of a guy are you? We're kind of getting to know each other and we're supposed to get married and we're thinking about getting married too. Not to come see you. What does that mean? I was like, I can't explain this to you but I hope someday you will understand why I need this space because it's one of the most difficult characters in my life and I don't want any distraction. I need to be able to only be here. And many years later actually when we were seeing the film so by then we were married. When I shot the film I saw it on TV in a small editing room. It was so big. So we went inside next to each other. I got involved. I was very nervous about my performance. When the interval happened I looked here and there was a distance of 10 feet between me and Meera. From here she had actually moved there because she got up and she said I don't think I know you because who's that guy? And if you're that guy I don't want to marry you. So she was actually so thrown off by the punch up. I could feel that whenever we were at home even if I would come close to her she would give me that energy of I need time. Just keep your distance. Cheating is something so subjective. What is cheating? Cheating is something you want to do for yourself because you like to do it. And you don't know how to hurt the other guy. So you're saying I'm hiding it and doing it. But even not giving yourself time is cheating yourself. I remember I had my first cigarette and I never smoked before that. So my friends told me don't buy a cigarette. Bump from us. We would start buying and smoking. I was drinking from that day. Now I started going home to take a train from Pune to Nagpur. Now in the train I felt like so that's the first time I bought my pack of cigarettes. Now I have to hide it from my dad and mom. I hid it in my house. Next morning dad walks up to me and he came with a carton of cigarettes. Some expensive cigarettes. Smoke up Johnny. I looked at him and said dad I don't smoke. It's a good one. Mom found it. I said you come here for limited time anyways. And all the people who smoke then you know walk out. I have a cigarette. What kind of cigarettes did you smoke Rick back in the day? That was also cheating but I tried to smoke. Vantage. And then unfiltered camels as an acoron steak. Unfiltered? That's a mistake. Yeah it was. Which film company had subs for all these? I'm surprised. You picked this question. I picked it by your director. Calmly. How honest is being is good. That is a question right now. You can cheat on them now. There have been a couple of films I would say where I felt cheated for the very reason that I felt that the filmmakers were not in it. They are very successful filmmakers through the time. There are two people who come to mind right now. They are very successful at that time. And I think that was the problem. And I actually have huge respect for you sir for this one thing. Because I don't know anybody who has seen success the way that you have seen it and I have not seen any change in you sir. And it is so inspiring because over the years one understands that finding success in the career then keeping it. Your true character defines where you get eventually. I feel talent can bring you success but talent can't keep it for you. And it's very important to know how to keep your focus. Because do you start while the film is being made any film? I start freaking out sir. In the journey you start knowing that this is going wrong. Oh you can tell. Easily. But when the process is flawed when you are seeing that everything is in okay take sometimes the filmmaker is looking at his phone while the shot is going on. Oh my god. I thought maybe these days filmmakers are discovering themselves. You know. I was like I don't know because this guy is very good. He has made very good films. I have heard him as an actor. The film body was straightforward. It was not a triple film. So it's very frustrating and it's very painful because I don't think anybody wants to give one year of their life to a process which is flawed. And I always feel that in this profession we should always be process oriented and not result oriented. Because the result is not up to anybody. So just be true to the process. And then if it's wrong we'll try again. We were all together in the journey. So what's your best? Yeah, exactly. Intention is good. Yeah exactly. He won't. Oh the one and only Mr. Raj. We are having a wonderful time learning from this beautiful interview. All through us. Thank you. Raju, a friend of yours has a question for you. The success of your past films make you feel scared when you make a new film. How do you deal with the pressure of expectation? Oh I bet it's high. See how I guessed it. I can't forget his voice. That's such an original voice. And now you're about to have one with SRK. As a matter of fact, it's only your first film which you make completely fearlessly. Orson Wells would say and you tasted success tasted the appreciation and you want that to happen all the time. But all I tell myself in that period of success. Historical look at every director in the world made successful films. People have made films which have not succeeded. So it's going to happen to me. Someday I'll make films which will succeed. Someday they won't succeed. All I can try and do is be true to myself and not think of a formula for success. The moment you think of a formula for success you try to pre-empt what the world is going to like that's going to be the undoing. It actually makes sense that he told Shahrukh Khan not to do that. This works, this works. But the moment you become dishonest and say, I'm going to add an item song, I'm going to add an action scene, I'm going to add anti-gravity. That's your recipe for disaster. In fact, once you start doing stuff that you know you're not true to the story. Every time try and find one a unique story and try and find inspiration from your life. So then they're true. The moment you start picking from other films or other sources it's never reflections of life. I'm not saying that there's any formula. We will still fail. You create from the real space. Basically you take something that you connect with and then you start evolving. So then it's just new. It's like how Rocky did that first when he's going. Every sports film you see, they replicated that. You watch every film, every film has that. So it's boring. But you dig into your own life, what stand-up comedians do. They constantly see identifications of life, reflections of life and they're picking up from what people do. So when you sit in the theater and see that, it does something. There's a whole language barrier sometimes just used for the toss. You can totally relate. All you can do is continue making films and it's amazing. Be ready to fail someday. Read inside. Just not with SRK. That's a challenge for you. Shahid, I have a surprise for you. A fan of yours has an interesting question. It's me. I love the trailer. You're looking great. With time, ideologies of people change. The way people used to think earlier they don't anymore. So how does it affect you as an actor to assume the character of a person who is from another century and his ideology is so different so much so that he could have multiple wives? Nice question. Very nice question. This is similar to what Sour said. I think if you cannot relate to a character at any level, you can spend time trying to reach a point where you can find something that you can connect with and that can come from the filmmaker or from the script. It's essentially saying you can't judge the character. And if you do, don't do it. You can find something where you feel you can connect with it and therefore you can represent it and play it. It's an interesting thing. If you're playing Hitler, you have to relate to Hitler. Yes. And he's, I think, the best in this country at that. Absolutely. Is that he believes that if us, while we are sitting and discussing a scene, cannot relate to it, we should not write that scene or we should not do that scene because we are making it for an audience in 2017, not 2015, 2010. It's an experience which can be understood, appreciated, which people can relate to and I think eventually every story is a human journey. Every film is about relationships and universal truth. And I think that's why cinemas somehow never goes out of fashion. Great films will always be great films. Films that might be technically laughable are still classics. Because even though they were made at a time where sometimes a camera is going like this or the quality is really bad or the sound sometimes is not good when you see it and we're used to all those things being so good today. What holds you in a film, I think, is the humanity of it. Amen. The end. Yeah. Amen. Now we'll get really relaxed. Yes, the end is good. Well, it was great chatting with you fine gentleman. Stupid. New faces, new tips and more. There's a lot more questions I'd like to ask. There's a lot more questions I'd like to ask both of you. But I feel like they had some really good answers. Especially towards the back when they started to get into the craft a little bit. I was really enjoying that and it's no surprise. I know we've saw him very early but he's not a name that kind of stuck in my head. Me too. Yeah. I think it's a good thing that we're used to Indians. Because after we did that thing with SRK and him, people were like, I love SRK but this is a... I'm more excited for the fact that it's him. He's a new film of his than I am for Shahrukh Khan. Just because of his track and the kind of films he makes. PK, 380, but it's no shock that he has that viewpoint of you have to come at it from an honest place and not a place of just doing trick. I mean, you've talked about a lot on the channel with acting. If you reach into your bag of tricks you're going to be able to tell. Even though they might be really good tricks you're not being honest anymore. Yeah, the people who know. And are the movers and shakers of the art form and if you want to be part of that they'll recognize the difference and it is, you pointed out rightly so. It explains there's a truth in that teaser when SRK said romance and he said, yeah, we're not going to spread the arms. It makes me wonder how much SRK is going to allow himself to start stepping into some new thespianatic places like we've wanted. Where he's given permission to not be who he's been because it works. Because that's the line you have to draw artistically is on the one hand you have fans who have an anticipation of what you're going to provide. Yet at the same time are you just going to become a stereotype and a cliche or are you going to continue to reinvent yourself and find as Shahid said humanity and yourself in each character because are you a performer or are you an actor? Yeah, and then obviously Shahid's answers weren't shocking at all to me. That's the style of actor that I've known he is since we first saw him. And I've seen snippets of him talk about the craft and he understands and loves the craft. And the fact that he said about the character he's like you have to relate to this character is a very true statement. If you're playing a rapist a mass murderer you have to be able to relate to this character in some way to play him authentically. Absolutely, otherwise you've prejudged him. Yeah, obviously you're not going to go out and rape people obviously this is your job you have to be able to play this character and play him honestly and know why he's doing what he's doing and not judge him for what he's doing. I've just come up in different classes I've had with Howard Fine where an actor has said those very things and he will specifically give people roles that will challenge that and they'll say how am I supposed to play this when I would never do that and he'd say like for example a rapist he'd say okay you may not go out and rape someone but you've got that in you have you ever had the thought in your mind of doing something vitriolically and horrifically illegally violent in a moment with someone or had that fantasy be honest with yourself and they'd say of course there's a rapist in you if you're honest with yourself you could find an evil dark place where when push came to shove you might flip that switch and find that dark place in you and if you can't don't take the role. And I've heard him say it a lot especially when Kabir Singh was coming out and there was that whole controversy because he hit the heroin in the film and people were like why is the hero doing that why are you encouraging and he's like I'm not he's a flawed character exactly we're not saying it's good to hit people this is just this character story and he hit his significant other and it's really one of the things that we love most about complex characters is that human beings are flawed so even the greatest hero can be a flawed hero man don't ever I just watched this film called Naked I don't know if you ever saw it 1993 film David Lee I think is the director but the lead in it is David he plays Lupin in Harry Potter 1993 tough that film there's rapin going on in there there's the whole thing it's like a philosophical style film so you're like what does this mean what does that mean all this kind of stuff it's a very film school students favorite kind of film everything means something yeah I enjoyed it talk about terrible character you know what movie you'd probably like too that's a very similar thing in terms of what you just described is the film Titan oh yeah I've never seen it it's do not let Leland get his eyes anywhere near the screen yeah it is it shows you the darker side of human nature through metaphor and imagery that's mostly mostly metaphorical the whole thing itself is a metaphor but it's it's hard to sit through and one of those films that when it's over you will feel like you were almost violated and that's what it's intending to do it's the intention of the film anyway it's great conversation I'd love to have a conversation with both of them both of those gentlemen I think it would be a really interesting talk for different reasons for each of them I don't know if there are others of these oh they look like Rajkumar and Farhan Khan who is that Farakhan Bashwarya Raya and Abhisak Bakjan where? oh that's just a joint interview sorry it's not a tape test I don't know how many of these they did but Rajkumar would obviously be a really interesting one I'd love to see Rajkumar Rao and Fahad Fasil yeah I think they usually try to get people of different well I guess not because they had Vicky and his wife but they weren't anyways let us know what other ones we can rack to and what should be both of their next films that we should watch please let us know down below