It's not a rainy morning in the suburbs of Mumbai, but the sky looks as grey as the puddles of mud churned up outside a film studio; but, inside, something magical is happening. Walk along several dark and grimy corridors and suddenly you see a room inside a room - like a Chinese box or a conjuring trick - where light streams out of the windows into the cavernous gloom. Navigate a path through Shahid Kapur's personal assistant and manager, and you find yourself within the inner sanctum of what looks like a Caribbean or a Hawaiian beach resort. The actor is a part of a chat show called 'Tere Mere Beach Mein', where the set has been recreated down to the last detail, with a vase of colourful peonies, and the gleam of traditional tea light candle stands reflected in the cut glass mirror. DJ on the roof top plays 'Dhan Te Nan' as the star arrives and gives it a rum-punch flavour. The host of the show, Farah Khan, takes her seat and waits for her first celebrity guest to sit on the pink sofa besides her. Before this, inside the actors' vanity van, I was ordered to take the centre seat of the front row. "Please introduce my journalist friend to Farah and Genelia (she was the second celebrity guest on the show) and make sure he is comfortable while watching the talk show", commands Shahid to his manager. Bollywood Hungama's London correspondent and UK's Harrow Observer columnist Devansh Patel meets one of India's best loved actor, Shahid Kapur. And with his latest performance in Kaminey where he plays Charlie, the notorious criminal, tinsel town may not be necessary.
Oh yes, he's dignified. Shahid Kapur seems long, slender, impossibly serpentine - and anything but 29 - as he uncurls himself from the sofa of his vanity van where he's getting ready to go to Yash Raj Studios. Dressed in a white tee and a grey shirt unbuttoned over it, he rises to his full height and steps out, which is considerable, and greets me warmly with a strong handshake and a "How ya doin'?" Even the most banal conversational gambit sounds like mood music when purred in that warm and smoky baritone. He is in the best shape of his life: Strong, sturdy and sly. Just like Charlie in Kaminey. But before he was Charlie, he was once a boy. "The journey from a boy to a man and to a kamina now has been interesting. It's exciting and has shown new sides of myself. I've learnt a lot on the film and while working with Vishal Bhardwaj. I've become a lot more self assured, ready to take risks, do something new and different. I think doing something different is easy but doing something different where you can reach out to your audience is a tough one."
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