To Be Or Not To Be: Shahid Kapoor
Bollywood’s favourite Boy-Next-Door Shahid Kapoor features in this months cover of GQ India.
Making a few adaptations to Shakespeare famous monologue “To Be or Not To Be.”
To Be Or Not To Be: Shahid Kapoor
Styled By: Vijendra Bhardwaj – Video Directed By: Rohan Micheal Hoole – Photographed By: Tarun Vishwa – Hair By: Ricky/Hakim Aalim – Make-Up By: James Gladwin – Video Edited By: Arshad Sayed – Assistant Stylist: Tanya Vohra – Production: Vasundhara Sharma – Location Courtesy: Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai
To Be Or Not To Be: Shahid Kapoor
Born to actors Panjak Kapoor and Neelima Azeem, entering Bollywood was still no easy task for Shahid Kapoor.
The beginning of Shahid’s acting career started with doing ads. At the age of 18 he worked in a Pepsi commercial with Sharukh Khan, Kajol, and Rani Mukherjee.
Shahid Kapoor
Shahid’s mother Neelima Azeem is a well known khatak dancer, so theres no surprise that dance and Bollywood came as an early interest!
At 15 Shahid joined Shiamak Davar’s Dance Institute. Being the shy boy Shahid’s talent was one Shiamak could not miss, and was placed into an Advanced Batch. After winning “Best of 1,500 Dancers” award for the end-of-the-term award ceremony, Shahid joined the institute as an instructor. Shahid says “…Shiamak was extremely patient but also hard on discipline Its from him that I not only learnt my dancing skills, but also the first rules of professionalism.”
It wasn’t until Ad-man Ken Gosh notice Shahid’s talent and gave him his first film “Ishq Vishk.” The film received great reviews and Shahid won Film Fares “Best Male Debut Award” for his performance.
Since debuting in “Ishq Vishk,’ Shahid has delivered 4 superhit films: “Vivah”, “Jab We Met”, “Kaminey” and “Badmaash Company.”
Soon to be releasing Vishal Bharwaj’s much anticipated adaptation of William Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ – A young man’s journey to avenge his fathers death. Shahid had this to say about his character:
“It’s definitely the most challenging role of my career, as an actor i find it the most complex part to play” says Shahid “…You have characters which are very complex in their… in the mind. And those are the characters I think which are the most difficult to portray… and Haider is that kind of character, and i’ve not really played a character like that before”
During a press conference in London Shahid says:
“Hamlet is a very coveted role for any actor, but having saying this that once you start playing the part it makes you feel extremely inadequate because it pushes you so much as an actor that you really wonder wether you have what it takes to be able to pull it off or to be able to satisfy the filmmakers requirement or requirement that Hamlet has. However, one has attempted it. I hope people like it. It gave me a lot of confidence that everytime Vishal Sir would say that he was happy with what i was doing cause I honestly wasn’t sure. Because it’s a very complex role to play, mentally the character’s journey is very complex…” – Shahid Kapoor
Haider will be releasing in theaters October 2ndv 2014
Making of Haider trailer