THE ERA OF RANBIR

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Il suo ultimo film, Shamshera, distribuito un mese fa, non ha incontrato i favori del pubblico, quindi ora tutti gli occhi sono puntati sulla prossima pellicola, Brahmāstra - Part One: Shiva, nelle sale fra qualche settimana. Comunque vada, il 2022 rimarrà memorabile per il sempre talentuoso Ranbir Kapoor: in aprile l'attore si è sposato con Alia Bhatt (sua partner in Brahmāstra), e la coppia sta aspettando un bambino. Proprio la settimana scorsa i due erano in vacanza in Italia, una sorta di brevissima luna di miele incastonata fra i rispettivi impegni professionali (clicca qui). In attesa di applaudire nuovi trionfi, vi propongo un lungo, entusiastico articolo dedicato a Ranbir pubblicato da India Today il primo luglio 2013, anticipato da un editoriale e, naturalmente, dalla copertina. L'attore era allora in corsa per il titolo della più giovane superstar del cinema hindi popolare contemporaneo (buon sangue non mente). Cos'è successo in seguito? La carriera di Ranbir ha sperimentato alti (Tamasha, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Sanju) e bassi (Besharam, l'intrigante Roy, Bombay Velvet, Jagga Jasoos), oltre alla concorrenza di un certo Ranveer Singh.

EDITORIALE, Aroon Purie:

'Every superstar in the Hindi film industry has banked on a formula to become a national icon. If Rajesh Khanna was the eternal romantic of the 1960s, Amitabh Bachchan embodied the repressed anger of a young nation in the 1970s. The 1990s belonged to Shah Rukh Khan, who represented a post-liberalisation globalised generation. He gave a new twist to the romantic lover boy, naughty and passionate, yet totally devoted to Indian values. Ranbir Kapoor, the new superstar of Indian cinema, doesn't have a formula to his stardom.

He is just 30 and has done 10 films since his towel-dropping debut in Sanjay Leela Bansali's Saawariya in 2007, but it's impossible to slot him in any particular image. From the goofy salesman in Rocket Singh Salesman of the Year (2009) to the scheming political heir in Raajneeti (2010), from the good Samaritan in Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (2009) to the superstar rocker in Rockstar (2011), from the aimless and confused youngster in Wake Up Sid (2009) to the ambitious traveller in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (YJHD), his roles are as varied as that of a seasoned character actor.

Some may argue that the credit should go to the new environment in Bollywood as several talented directors are experimenting with subjects and forms that don't conform to type. But such experiments have rarely created superstars. "I challenge any star from my time till now to take the kind of risks this boy has taken," his proud father, actor Rishi Kapoor, says. With the risks have come great rewards. His latest film, YJHD, grossed over Rs 170 crore in three weeks. His previous release, Barfi!, was also a Rs 100-crore blockbuster.

This is a rather curious phenomenon in the Hindi film industry which is likely to be worth nearly Rs 30,000 crore next year. Ranbir defies almost all the market tricks supposed to ensure an entry into the coveted Rs 100-crore club-six-pack abs, gravity-defying action sequences, mindless comedy, provocative item numbers and songs with beautiful women in foreign locations. Movie-goers paid to watch him not utter a single word in Barfi! and lose his girl in Rockstar. This is where Ranbir has evolved beyond his star power. His biggest USP is perhaps this element of unpredictability. Viewers still don't know what to expect of him.

Deputy Editor Kunal Pradhan spent 50 hours over four days with Ranbir to decode the man behind the star. He followed the actor to his film shoots, discussed film promos in his vanity van, worked out with the actor in the gym and even spent time with him in his first-floor room. In his real world, the reel superstar is quite predictable. He still lives with his parents, is obsessed with video games, watches football with friends and is terrified of his dominating father. "Interviewing Ranbir feels like hanging out with any regular person just entering his 30s. He is unafraid to reveal himself, which is a rare trait in any public figure, particularly an actor," says Pradhan.

Being on the cover of India Today was one of Ranbir's four wishes when he joined films. With this issue, his wish gets fulfilled twice over. We put him on the cover first in our June 21, 2010, issue for being the boy wonder who dared to shun formulaic films. Three years later, that risk-taking ability has allowed him to be emblematic of new-age Bollywood. The real big test for the actor is what he will do from here. As his friend Ayan Mukerji, director of YJHD, says: "To see how he changes as a superstar will be interesting. When he's 40, will he still be open to meeting a young, unknown director with a new script? That will decide whether he becomes the next Shah Rukh Khan or someone even bigger." That's for later. Let's revel now, in the new superstar hero who's defying every stereotype of superstardom'.

STAR NEXT DOOR: RANBIR KAPOOR, INDIA'S NEW ACTING SUPERSTAR, Kunal Pradhan:

'Ranbir Kapoor, 30, is India's new acting superstar. His latest film Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, released on May 31, has notched up collections of Rs 170 crore at last count, on the back of another Rs 100-crore blockbuster, Barfi!. His new custom-made Mercedes Benz G63 AMG now gets chased down the Bandra-Worli Sea Link by teenagers who recognise him through his lightly tinted windows. There is a gaggle of girls waiting at the gate of his Pali Hill bungalow for an audience; some so persistent and regular they're on first-name terms with his watchman, particularly because Ranbir gets pictures clicked with each one of them. (...)

But in the middle of all this adulation, Ranbir seems strangely unaffected. "I don't know what's wrong with my son," his mother Neetu Singh, 54, tells India Today. "This boy is as relaxed when his film doesn't do well as he is when it's a smash hit. I sometimes wonder if I gave birth to a yogi." His father Rishi Kapoor, 60, a bullish patriarch who admits he had gone on a wild streak after his own debut film Bobby had smashed box-office records in 1973, describes Ranbir as his polar opposite. "I marvel at what keeps him so grounded," he says, swelling in equal measure with pride and bewilderment.

Ranbir (...) jokes about how his state of Zen is being seen as a character flaw. (...) But stoic or not, Ranbir is more calculating, and unabashedly chasing success, than he lets on. Afternoons in his vanity van are spent cruising through one film promo after another. He watches them again and again, seeking opinions on how they are. "Did you see the Chennai Express spot?" he asks about the new Shah Rukh Khan movie. "Good or run-of-the-mill? What about Lootera?" That's the new Vikramaditya Motwane film starring Ranveer Singh. His Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani director and closest friend Ayan Mukerji, 29, says it is Ranbir's way of constantly testing waters, analysing, and trying to break down how his own promo will stand out from all the others. "He has his ear to the ground," says Mukerji. "How can my film be different, that's the only question on his mind."

It's this constant craving to be different that allows Ranbir to do the kind of roles he's done: from Rocket Singh Salesman of the Year in 2009 to Barfi! in 2012, at a time when everybody around him was telling him not to. "I challenge any star," says Rishi Kapoor, "from my time till now, to take the kind of risks this boy has taken." Rishi, sitting in a vanity van next to Ranbir's on the sets of Besharam, which also stars both him and his wife Neetu, is now speaking with a passion that automatically amplifies his volume. "A lot of people did different cinema but that was when they were working with four other regular films on the side. They didn't put their careers on the line like Ranbir has, working on one project at a time," he says, getting louder with every pause. "I can't tell him what films to do now, because what the hell do I know? A lot of people prove their detractors wrong, but he has proven his well-wishers wrong."

Not prone to such passion when off camera, Ranbir looks at his odd choice of roles a little differently. "The first time I thought I should be an actor was in school. I thought at least this is something for which I won't have to study," he laughs. "But I've realised that an actor needs to be constantly unsure about what he's doing, and about what's going on around him. The moment you think you've nailed it, you're dead."

As a Punjabi boy from Bandra, Ranbir, who went to study film in New York, admits he doesn't fully understand the world outside his tiny bubble. "What do I know about my character from Rockstar, (...) or Rocket Singh, or Samar Pratap (Raajneeti, 2010), or the deaf and mute Barfi? The idea is to use the experience of the people who do know. I can relate to Sid (Wake Up Sid, 2009) or Kabir from Yeh Jawaani but that's about it. I'm fortunate to be working with directors who're willing to invest in my education," he says. Anurag Basu, who Ranbir calls Dada, talks to him regularly about new ideas and new characters. Imtiaz Ali, concerned that he doesn't have the command over Hindi or Urdu needed for good diction, and by extension good dialogue delivery, sends him books by Premchand or poetry by Faiz. "You don't need to go through every life experience yourself when you have people to share them with. I have my own point of view and my own understanding through my relationships with women, and my exposure to world cinema. The characters I portray engage me, and I assume they would engage an audience," he says.

Today Ranbir's star meter is at a point few actors have reached before. Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani is a rare, epochal moment that comes along perhaps once in a decade, when the audience starts believing that the person they're seeing on the screen is not the character, but the actor himself. It happened with Shah Rukh Khan in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) when viewers thought Raj was a physical embodiment of Shah Rukh. They thought he was a passionate lover who would go to any lengths to win the girl of his dreams, charming his way past any opposition. Shah Rukh emerged from that film as a funny, confident, upright, master-of-all-trades who women wanted to fall in love with and men wanted to be friends with.

Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani has struck a similar chord. The movie-watching public somehow believes that the man they see on screen is not Kabir, but Ranbir. That he is naughty and fun-loving. That he takes life lightly. That he is loyal to his friends but wouldn't give up on his dreams for the woman he wants to share his world with. That he is the life of every party and the soul of every song. "It's too soon for me to analyse the film," says director Mukerji. "We had thought it would do well but fall short of being a blockbuster-like, say, a Cocktail (2012). But something multiplied its business. Perhaps it was Ranbir and how the public saw him as Kabir." Unlike any other Bollywood superstar before him, Ranbir's USP is how he reins in his emotion, rather than how he lets it out. He's not a master of tragedies like Dilip Kumar, or an angry young man like Amitabh Bachchan, or a fervent lover like Shah Rukh. Ranbir is a new hero for a new age. 

Sociologist Shiv Visvanathan, professor at the O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonepat, and senior fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi, says: "Ranbir is, first, part of a legacy, a nostalgia-Raj Kapoor incarnate, a clown but an adolescent clown. Second, he is a subject of gossip, which sees him as playful and light, and with a roving eye. If Aamir Khan is a social project and Salman Khan is a muscular project, Ranbir is an individual project. He is narcissistic without being self-obsessed, which makes him connect with the India we are becoming, and the India we want to be."

This change in perception now follows him everywhere he goes. There is a smile on the faces of the Besharam unit when Ranbir walks on the set. (...) The assistant directors and grips watch him through tints of rose as he bends down to touch the feet of veteran action director (...) or refers to the cinematographer (...) as "Madhu sir". They gather around as he raps with co-star (...) between shots. They want to know what Ranbir's room is like, who his friends are, which restaurants he goes to, what turns him on, and what has made him this friendly, humble superstar who throws no tantrums and remembers everybody's names.

Ranbir's bedroom on the first floor of the Krishna Raj bungalow, where he chooses to live with his parents despite a bank balance now estimated to be in the range of Rs 200 crore, is a strange mix of young and old. His king-size bed, covered by high threadcount sheets, sits on a wooden floor. The lamp on the side table is perched next to The King Of Oil: The Secret Lives Of Mark Rich by Daniel Amman. "I read autobiographies because there is too much fiction in my life," says Ranbir. There is a beige three-seater sofa for friends, and small tables all around which hold his numerous awards. The decor is inspired by film and family: A poster of Barfi!, a photograph of the first shot of Mughal-e-Azam featuring his great grandfather Prithviraj Kapoor, a mosaic of his grandfather Raj Kapoor's face created from movie stills, and a 3,300-image mosaic of his own face presented to him by the Ranbir Kapoor fan club.

The centrepiece of the room is a 103-inch TV on which he's watching the Netflix series House of Cards. He has an Xbox 360, on which he plays FIFA 2010 and Halo 4, and a Playstation 3, on which his latest favourite is Uncharted 3. His mini-refrigerator is stacked with beer, caviar, sardines, and his favourite chocolate wafers, Quadratini. "When I'm in this room, I vegetate," says Ranbir.

Despite living with a strict father and an indulgent mother, Ranbir has a clearly defined personal space, borne partly out of rebellion and partly out of success. When he was in college, he would derive great pleasure in violating his 1.30 a.m. curfew. "I came home by midnight, waited for everyone to go to bed, then snuck out." His girlfriends often stay over despite his folks living on the floor below. "I don't take them for breakfast with my parents. But I'm sure they know who stayed over," he says.

Ranbir's relationship with women is a little more complicated than he likes to admit. He's been in five "meaningful" romances. His last girlfriend, Deepika Padukone, was his co-star from Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008) and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. "We're okay now. We sorted things out a while ago," he says about her. The closure has come at a price, hinting that an inveterate romantic is hiding beneath textbook intimacy issues: Ranbir avoids riding the Segway he would use to go to her Bandra home when they were dating. "I associate it with her. That was my Deepika vehicle."

But his inability to invest too much is obvious from how Ranbir has never been dumped. "I haven't really gone in deep enough to allow myself to get hurt. I'm weak; I pull away when things start to stagnate. I'm aware that I've broken five hearts, and it's not a good feeling." Ranbir says he doesn't really have a 'type'. "I like conflict - someone who challenges me, someone who I can look up to, someone who can keep me in check. Love has to be extraordinary, otherwise there's no point in it. I just haven't met anyone who's made me feel that way." At least not for long enough.

All this talk could also be a ploy to kill the rumour that has been raging in Bollywood - of his relationship with Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (2009) co-star Katrina Kaif. "Everybody seems to think we're together, but it's not true," Ranbir insists. "She gets along with Ayan as well so we hang out together. It gets tiresome sometimes to talk about what Katrina and I have, and what we don't." His fans, and somehow even his film unit, don't seem to buy that.

But the defining relationship of his life is the one with his father Rishi Kapoor. It's an awkward, uneasy connection though the distance between them is slowly reducing. When Ranbir was a child, his father would either be out shooting, or would get into loud drunken brawls with Neetu that stretched deep into the night. "There were times when my sister (...) and I would be sitting on the steps till 6 a.m., waiting for them to stop," says Ranbir. It made for a difficult adolescence, stemming from an early realisation of how complicated a relationship between a man and a woman can be. "I always knew Dad loved my mother. He is still deeply possessive about her. They would have long arguments and passionate reconciliations. But he always held the upper hand in the house. He was the dominant force, and the rest of us had to cower." It was only when Ranbir returned from college did he noticed the dynamic had changed. His mother had become assertive. "She now had a point of view and got her way," he says.

His misgivings about alcohol spring from seeing what its overindulgence had done to his father. Ranbir is a reluctant social drinker but has smoked his share of weed, especially while at film school. "I used it again during Rockstar," he says, "this time as an acting tool. It was hard to get in the moment on stage with 300 bored junior artistes posing as a real audience. Pot made those moments feel real." But he says he's quit now, partly because he's too busy to get high, partly because he can't afford the lack of concentration and short-term memory loss that comes with smoking up. Rishi Kapoor acknowledges that his relationship with Ranbir remains somewhat strained. "I don't believe a father and son should be friends. I don't want him smoking in front of me, and I'm not comfortable talking to him about his girlfriends. But maybe," he adds, "I've missed something. Maybe I could've been a little different."

Ranbir still wants his father to handle his acting contracts for two reasons. One, Rishi Kapoor is a hard nut to crack in the boardroom and always gets him a great deal. Two, he doesn't want to let commercial negotiations come in the way of a partnership with producers and directors, many of whom are his friends. His only condition is that any creative decision must be his own.

"Today Ranbir is a young actor making fresh films with new directors telling different stories," says Mukerji. "To see how he changes as a superstar will be interesting. When he's 40, will he still be open to meeting a young, unknown director with a new script, or will the Rs 100-crore blood that he's tasted force him to play safe? That, for me, is the question which will decide whether he becomes the next Shah Rukh or someone even bigger." It's past midnight now. Ranbir is back in his room. (...) But he won't be going to bed anytime soon. "I am too insecure to crash early," says Ranbir. "I feel life will pass me by while I'm sleeping".'