His ‘filmi’ background hasn’t made life easy for Shahid Kapoor. He has had his string of flops but still seems undaunted. Tell him that people call him a ‘kamina’ dancer and he quips, “Yes, I am a ‘kamina’ dancer. In fact, I want to own the word ‘kamina’ in every possible way. I take it as a huge compliment.”
Kaminey was a milestone in Shahid’s career and the 2009 film was his last big hit. So he’s obviously hoping that his next film Teri Meri Kahani with Kaminey co-star Priyanka Chopra will do the trick. The film is set in three different eras, and Sasha essays three different characters. One of his characters Javed, from 1910, is his favourite. “Javed is this ‘bindaas’ guy. His only concern is love. Nothing else matters to him. And with his ‘shayari’, obviously, he’s popular among women. I think with this film, I’ve learnt a lot of ‘herogiri’ from my director Kunal Kohli, so portraying these characters became a little easy,” says Shahid.
This is also the first time Shahid plays a Muslim character to the delight of his mother. “My mother always wanted to see me represent that side of my personality. That is also a part of me. And Javed is that kind of a character. But then, he’s ‘badtameez’ as well,” he says. Is Shahid ‘badtameez’ for real? “I think you should be asking that to Priyanka and the people I’ve worked with in this film,” he says with a smile.
His upcoming film is not the only thing keeping Shahid busy for now. The actor is set to perform at and co-host the IIFA Awards this year. While there’s no doubt about his dancing prowess, it’ll be interesting to see him play host with actor Farhan Akhtar. “I’m absolutely looking forward to it. I think it’ll be a fun night. There’s a young, fresh, new vibe. Farhan and I have done a few sessions, and it has been so much fun,” Shahid claims.
On the performance front, he says, “I’ll be performing with Priyanka, we’ll put up something special from our film.” In addition, he’ll be dedicating another act to the South Indian film industry, dancing to songs from the South. “Yes, I’m going to go down South. And there’ll be a dedication to all the South songs. I’m still trying to learn the lyrics though. And this time, Prabhu Deva is choreographing the acts, so that’s like double the fun,” says Shahid.
Since Prabhu Deva has been introduced into the conversation, we ask Shahid to clear the air on rumours of him doing Wanted 2. Prabhu Deva seems very impressed by the actor. He laughs, “Yes, he is impressed and I take that happily, but I’m not doing Wanted 2. We’ve been meeting often and discussions are on regarding doing a film together. But that film is certainly not Wanted 2. We might do a film together next year but we aren’t sure what it would be like.”
For now, Shahid will dance to Prabhu Deva’s tunes on the IIFA stage in Singapore on June 9.