‘Don’t have the vanity that my films should release in theatres,’ says Harsh Varrdhan Kapoor

PTI

There is more creative freedom in releasing Thar on Netflix, says actor Harsh Varrdhan Kapoor, who felt liberated that they did not have to censor scenes or think about the box office numbers of the film. It would be the fourth Netflix release for the actor, whose films Bhavesh Joshi did well at the platform after a theatrical release while Ray and Ak vs Ak directly released on the streaming platform.

“I don’t have that vanity that my films should release in cinema. I don’t take myself that… for me it is not about me, but about the film and over the course of my career, people will see that. I am not self-involved with the approach,” Kapoor told in an interview ahead of the release of Thar.

Son of Bollywood star Anil Kapoor, the actor is working with his father in the movie, directed by debutant Raj Singh Chaudhary. The film also features Fatima Sana Shaikh, Satish Kaushik, Jitendra Joshi and Mukti Mohan. “I feel with this film, we were creatively more liberated because you don’t have to think about the pressure of first day number, satellite sale. There is decent amount of action, violence, little bit of sex, all of those things… With Netflix, you get a little more leeway in terms of artistic expression.

“What is on the screen is more or less exactly what is on the page. It has not been diluted in any way through that process.” Citing the example of some of his father’s films, Kapoor said while box office may follow the rule of demand and supply, the real test of a movie is time. “The quality of a film is what stands the test of time. They are two very different things, like if this film released in theatres and the first three-day collection would have been good, then it is successful film. “But maybe people didn’t like the film and they just went because they were curious to see it as opposed to other films that come in cinemas that are not able to generate interest immediately, the trade writes it off as a bad film. I have million examples like Nayak, Lamhe, Pukar, Parinda. Those are the films that people talk about now.” —