‘Saw Shahid Kapoor’s potential when people judged him as chocolate hero’: Pankaj Kapur

Pankaj Kapur said that though Shahid Kapoor was initially considered just a chocolate hero, he saw the talent in him right away.

It is an actor’s skills and not his looks that define him, believes veteran actor Pankaj Kapur, who says he recognised his son, actor Shahid Kapoor’s potential when people in the film industry only saw him as a “chocolate hero”. Shahid, who made his Bollywood debut with 2003’s Ishq Vishk, established himself as a leading man with romantic comedies and dramas like Fida, Chup Chup Ke, Vivah, Jab We Met, among others.

Pankaj Kapur said that he spotted son Shahid Kapoor’s potential years ago, when he was being considered just a good-looking chocolate boy.

“... Not just because he is my son, but as a colleague and as an actor, I could see the potential in him even 10 years back, when he was only being judged as a good-looking chocolate hero,” Kapur, 65, told PTI in an interview.

While Shahid received mixed reviews for his latest Kabir Singh, his father was all praise for his performance and said people have now started recognising his ability to act. “I said 10 years back that he is a dramatic actor and as time will pass, people will see his ability as an actor. And now suddenly people have started recognising -- ‘oh he can do this, he can do that’. When an actor gets an opportunity to do things, only then can he prove his mettle,” the Maqbool actor said.

According to Kapur, it is the ability of a person as an actor that “sustains him rather than anything else”. “We have had examples in our industry of people working for 30-40 years because of their ability to act. Your looks leave you after a point, you don’t look the same way you did when you were in your 20s or 30s,” he said, adding, “After that you have only your ability to show.”

The father-son duo have worked together in Shaandaar and Mausam, which Kapur also directed.

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