Shahid Kapoor Just Keeps On Ticking

Given his position of being an industry veteran of sorts at only 36, Shahid Kapoor’s in a good place — he’s pacing himself well, cherry-picking roles that excite him and exploring new roles as a parent and entrepreneur with ease.

- Shweta Mehta Sen

Would you believe Shahid Kapoor has been around for 14 years? It’s true. He was that baby-faced chap in Ishq Vishk all the way back in 2003. The sleeper hit had everyone asking who the “chocolate boy” was, till they discovered he was veteran actor Pankaj Kapur’s son. That he inherited his father’s acting chops didn’t become evident till much later, though. A couple of flops followed his debut, so Kapoor had to wait till 2006 to deliver his first big hit, Vivah, and then finally established his stardom the following year, with the colossal success of Jab We Met.

Years later, one can say this remains a pattern in Kapoor’s filmography. He’s hit some high notes post Jab We Met — notably Vishal Bhardwaj’s Kaminey and Haider, Udta Punjab and the somewhat unexpected success of the commercial potboiler R… Rajkumar — but they’ve all been saddled with films that didn’t quite cut it at the box office. The thing with Kapoor, though, is that every time he’s down — and God knows it’s been that way every few years — he’s anywhere but out. That annoyingly catchy Chumbawamba track, ‘Tubthumping’ (you’ll know it better by its lyrics – ‘I get knocked down, but I get up again, you’re never going to keep me down’), may well be the soundtrack of the actor’s career. In the enviable position of being an old-timer while still looking young enough to romance Alia Bhatt, he knows a thing or two about turning the tide. In an industry where fortunes change every Friday, he’s managed to stick around for the long run and repeatedly remind filmmakers of his skill in front of the camera — the latest being Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s upcoming Padmavati.