Ask Ranbir Kapoor why he’s been lying low for the longest time now and pat comes the reply: “I have nothing exciting to talk about. I’ve just been working on my movies." The movies in question are the just-completed Barfi! (promos of which look rather exciting), a half-complete Yeh Jawaani
Hai Deewani (YJHD), and two others that are yet to start Abhinav Kashyap’s Besharm and his brother Anurag Kashyap’s Bombay Velvet. Other than that, Ranbir makes time to play sports too — cricket and football and he emphasised that at a recent NDTV Fit India Campaign event, for which he is the ambassador.
Where does that leave time for his aim of making films? “It’s my dream and goal to do that, but I end up setting rough targets and not meeting them, so I guess it’ll just happen naturally when I have a story to tell. I’ve stopped saying things like ‘six months’ or ‘a year’.”
He seems to be getting enough practice from directing promos and small scenes for his films. He did it in Rockstar (2011) and just recently for Barfi! as well. But Ranbir has a different take. “I’m just one of those enthusiastic guys who like to get involved. It’s not that you’re directing anything. You can’t take the credit away from the person at the helm (in this case, director Anurag Basu).” Barfi! releases on September 14, while YJHD, for which he’s going to shoot in Argentina soon, is slotted for March 29 next year. Somehow, he’ll manage to make time for the Kashyap brothers too.
“I’m so excited about both the films. They are such polar opposites. Abhinav’s is a really fun, happy masala film and Anurag’s is a Salim-Javed-meets-Manmohan Desai kind of love story in the fifties,” enthuses Ranbir. But with nine very different roles in his five-year career, what’s left to do? “I’m here for the long run,” insists the actor. “I’m very greedy and wish I were in every film. There’s lots left to do.”