Anil Kapoor talks about the relevance of OTT; says he wants to explore more of the digital mediums.
Anil Kapoor made a successful debut on OTT platform with his Netflix release AK Vs AK. The actor is back with a fresh crime thriller, THAR. In Thar, the actor appears alongside his son Harsh Vardhan Kapoor, Fatima Sana Shaikh, and Satish Kaushik. The film is directed by Rj Chaudhary and scheduled to release on May 6. Thar is Anil Kapoor’s second OTT performance. Anil added that over-the-top (OTT) is the future, and that it’s a great opportunity for actors like him.
Anil Kapoor is open to everything
With theatres suffering setbacks due to the lockdown, the OTT sector exploded, and many A-list Bollywood stars decided to give it a shot. On the platform, Manoj Bajpayee, Ajay Devgn, Madhuri Dixit, Raveena Tandon, and Anil Kapoor, among others, gave it their all.
In an interview with India Today the actor said, “I feel it’s a great time for all of us (actors), content creators. It’s a great time. So, our job is to go in and perform. It can be any platform. It can be OTT, Television, or theatrical, I am open to everything. I don’t want to analyse what is there or not there. I feel this is the future and all the mediums are going to survive. There will be films that will do phenomenal business in theatres and OTT has one advantage, it is just one click away and can be seen in 200 countries. For example, Thar, it will be released across 200 countries which is unheard of for us 10 years back,”
He told a story from his past, saying, “Earlier in our days even before people realized the film is in theatres, it was brought down or we would have to go to Pune Institute to watch those old movies. I have watched so many classics at the Pune Institute because it wasn’t available out here, there was no YouTube, no internet, so I think it’s a great time for all of us. It’s the future.”
The Father-Son Duo
This is the second time this father-son team has collaborated. In AK Vs AK, their previous film together, Harshvardhan had a cameo. Anil Kapoor and Harshvardhan discuss Harshvardhan’s ambitions to become a director.
Harshvardhan replied: ” I studied writing for four years. So, it’s a very daunting prospect because we as actors blame everybody else when things go wrong, but it’s really a director’s medium. So, if you were to direct a film, there’s always a fear, right? But the dream is one day to direct something, whether that’s going to be for public consumption or just something that I do for myself. I don’t know yet, but I definitely want to have that experience because that’s the ultimate dream. So, if I end up doing something, it’ll definitely be something very personal for sure.”
Anil went on to explain why he agreed to do Thar: “There are so many youngsters in it. Like Raj (director) he has been in films, been an assistant and an actor but this is almost his first film as a director. Also, the entire team from Fatima, the music, the director of photography, the costume, a lot of young talent were involved in Thar. So, I said it’s always better and always great for someone who has worked for such a long time to be surrounded by a young team. I’m sure when I was their age lot of senior directors must have felt the same. So, I could get that kind of freshness and energy on the set, that’s the way I look at it and that is the reason I did the film.”
About THAR
When a murder shakes up a sleepy desert town, a veteran cop sees an opportunity to prove himself, leading him into the town’s dark underbelly as he attempts to uncover a brutal torture plot.
Published by – Mohit Maurya
Edited by – Samiksha Dashore.
