Happy Birthday, Anil

It’s not the diet.  It’s  the  attitude. Anil  Kapoor at  65,  looks 40. And I’m not kidding. When he came home for lunch , I stared at him open mouthed. Anil looks even younger in  person. His skin glows, his agility knows no bounds,  and  I’ve never seen anyone  who looks more like  a  movie star in India than Anil Kapoor.

When Anil arrived home I kept staring at him .He laughed  and  asked,  ‘Tu kuch bolega ya nahin?’

“It’s not fair!” I finally  blurted out. “I am younger than  you  . But I look ten years  older,” I whined.

Anil laughed pleasurably. He  loves the compliments and he  wants them coming constantly. I had heard about Anil’s strict diet plans. So I warned him that he better eat properly.

 He did! He  surprised me by tucking in.  Later when I mentioned  the  food to Anil’s daughter Sonam she was aghast. “He ate those things? He doesn’t touch that kind of food. He  must have starved himself for the next  four days.”

In an  earlier  interview I  asked Anil’s kubsoorati  ka raaz, and he  chuckled,  ” I am not fanatical about my health. Somewhere, I also feel I am blessed because I come from  a healthy stock. My Dad and my grandfather were not actors and yet they looked after themselves and lived a full life. Of course I set aside days when I just throw all caution to the winds, take a holiday, eat the forbidden food—with my wife’s permission—just chill. But there have been times when during a party at home I am suddenly found to be missing because I’ve an early-morning shooting.‘Kahaan hai , Anil?…He’s gone to sleep.’ When I am working I  never compromise on my sleeping hours and food habits.”

So then  how  on earth did  he allow himself to  tuck into the  rich food at my place? But that’s AK for  you. All heart. And unwilling to  break anyone’s heart. If I wished him to eat , he did even if it meant breaking his  strict diet. AK won’t break anyone’s heart. He  wants to be popular . He wants to be loved. And he will do whatever it takes  to  get  everyone’s  love.

Hence to have him play the villain In Malang  was  a bit of a hoot . I mean, anyone who knows AK  knows there isn’t one wicked bone in his body.And  yet in Mohit Suri’s Malang he brought the  house down as  the  antagonist.It’s hard to believe he  can be so convincing  as a bad guy.Or that he  can look  so well-matched with  the newly-slimmed  Aditya Roy Kapoor. In  fact AK looks  even younger than ARK.

He  loves to hear that. AK is  a born limelight moth.And no one minds giving him attention. He deserves  every bit of  the  love that he  gets  from  audiences to this day. No  other major star  of  his  generation—Sanjay Dutt, Sunny Deol, Jackie Shroff—commands  the same adulation.I don’t know anyone  outside and in the film industry  who doesn’t love AK. But I still don’t forgive him  for making me  look and feel so  old.