Shahid Kapoor Are The Best In Bollywood: Kabir Bedi

Shahid Kapoor Are The Best In Bollywood: Kabir Bedi


Veteran actor Kabir Bedi rates Ranbir Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor as the two best young actors in Bollywood today.

"But frankly there is dearth of young bright talented actors coming through. That's what Bollywood lacks today,'' feels Bedi who is one of the few Indian actors to make it to Hollywood.

"The problem could be also due to the fact that older actors keep reinventing themselves. Salman Khan is still there, Shah Rukh Khan is still ruling there. Akshay Kumar is there,'' Bedi added.

"But Ranbir and Shahid are the two most promising new-generation actors, and I want to see more young actors in Bollywood,'' he said.

However, he feels there is no death of young actresses.

"Bollywood has seen no such problem when it comes to new actresses. We have so many of them. We have just seen Anuskha Sharma come from nowhere. We have Deepika Padukone who too came from nowhere. We have Priyanka Chopra who has been on the scene for about 10 years now. She also came from nowhere. So I think there are some very good young actresses.''

Asked what he thought of Deepa Mehta's description of Bollywood as Indian kitsch'' and not true representative of Indian culture, he said, "Deepa is a great filmmaker of finer sensibilities. These may be her elitist views, but Bollywood does reflect India and its Indian culture. That it is has a huge audience worldwide shows that it reflects Indian culture.''

Later, speaking a discussion on 'Hollywood, Bollywood and Beyond,'' Bedi said Bollywood is a potent symbol of India.

He said though has not worked much in Bollywood, he has no hesitation calling himself a Bollywood actor.

"Bollywood is the most potent symbol of India. It has promoted (communal) unity. It has promoted Hindi as India's national language. Bollywood unites India,'' he said.

Shahid and I have become great pals: Sonam Kapoor

Shahid and I have become great pals: Sonam Kapoor

All is well between Sonam Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor. At least, that’s what Sonam suggests, while she trashes rumours that suggest she and her Mausam co-star are having ego issues.

“Utter rubbish. It’s very sad that such things come up about people I’ve had a great time working with,” she says, also hinting at reports suggesting she wasn’t happy with director Pankaj Kapur’s leisurely shooting schedule. Apparently, she had asked her father Anil Kapoor to sort out the issue with him.

 Mausam running behind schedule? “Since it has been hit by a few mishaps and production issues, besides me falling ill, things have been exaggerated. But it’s a special film for me,” she says.

Full of praise for her co-star, Sonam says, “Shahid is superb. And I say that because he is really hard-working and takes his job very seriously. He is an actor who always gives his 100 per cent.”

Interestingly, Sonam is possibly the only co-star that the young male star hasn’t been romantically linked to. “Thankfully, we haven’t been paired yet. But I don’t know how to respond to the question,” she laughs, adding that she is very fond of him. “You know, we became great friends during the shooting of Mausam. So whichever girl ends up with him will be very lucky because he is a nice guy.”

After wrapping up Mausam and Abbas-Mustan’s Players, the star is planning to take a short break from work. Her father’s remake of Freaky Friday (2003) is also not scheduled to go on floors in the near future. “We don’t even have a script for it yet,” she explains.

Once she returns, is she looking to act in a movie with Anil?

“Of course, I would love to work with my father, but only if it’s a brilliant script. So hopefully, we will get a nice story to work on

together. I will be lucky to share screen space with him,” says Sonam.