People are more important than words on paper- Shahid Kapoor

Shahid Kapoor has completed a decade in the movie business and is all geared up for his next, Phata Poster Nikla Hero. Talking about the film he talks about trusting the director entirely and says, " This world only Rajkumar Santoshi can create". The team of India Forums gets up close and personal with the very charming,Shahid Kapoor.

Honestly I don't think so much. I feel that when your time is right almost every decision you make seems to go right and when your time is not right somehow all decisions don't seem to go right because from the time that you sign a film and from then when a film gets made, it is a long journey. Once you have taken a decision you have to stand by it and I will always do that for every film of mine regardless of the final outcome. But I think I have done less work that's something that I needed to focus on. I am working on building equations with people and I want to work with directors who I can completely submit myself to and I think that is very important. So I think working with Raj ji especially on Phata Poster... , even Prabhu sir with whom I am working with and Vishal sir after it. These are the filmmakers that I can blindly trust and I can blindly follow. I think that's very important as an actor. Beyond that I don't really analyse too much. I think there are so many factors, difficult to sit back and analyse.

The learning is that you cannot have a relation with words on paper. When you read a script, those are just words on paper which needs to be converted into a movie. Its the team that you have to work with and spend a year of your life with. So its very important for the entire team to be on the same page and as an actor you have to make an effort to build an equation with the people you are working with. Its not a forced effort but you need to take those steps to make the team invest in you and you need to invest in the team as well. People are more important than words on paper.

This genre is new for me. I have never played this out-n-out entertaining commercial character. This zone is different for me. If you look at the colour palette of the poster of this film only, its bright, in your face, entertaining and I haven't done a film like that. So the most challenging thing for me to do was to adapt into a genre that I haven't done before. But like I said that Raj ji is such a good actor himself, he was the perfect person to have started this with because I could follow him. Mere jitne bhi screw tight the, unhone sab lose kar diye. He has opened me as an actor. He has allowed me to go out there and just have fun. When I used to ask him for the dialogues of the next day's scene, all he used to tell me was, set pe aao. All he wanted was for us to enjoy what we were doing. This film needs to be like that and comedy needs to be like that.

If people are saying it happily I am fine with it (Smiles). No issues.

Sometimes it works in your favour and sometimes it does not. After Vivah I sat down for 6 months , then did Jab We Met and it became a super hit and I was like Arre, Waah! Being choosy works. After that I got choosy about the next 2 films I did which didn't work so I was like Oh God! this doesn't work (Laughs). I don't think you can really have a plan. I don't think there is any set plan any actor can have and some of the most nicest things that you hear are from the most experienced people in the industry. The more time that you spend here, the more you understand that you should not take yourself too seriously. An actor needs to be like clay, he needs to allow other people to mould him instead of him trying to mould himself. Its important not to plan too much but its very important to work with people whom you can trust because eventually when you're being moulded you need to give people the freedom to mould you.

Earlier I used to think about it and of course you have an instinct about things if they are not going the way you thought they would or the feeling that you're doing great work. But I think an actor should avoid that. If you feel that you're doing great work it can make you feel complacent, if you feel that you're doing bad work and think that if tomorrow is going to be a better day, then you might just make it bad. I think an actor should only go out there and enjoy himself, do work everyday and not worry about the result.

Yes, there have been times in the past when I didn't open myself up completely to the director. But I wont tell you the the name of the film and the director till my dying day (Laughs).