Kunal Kapoor: Actors are 'helpless pieces of a puzzle'

He made his Bollywood debut in 2004 with 'Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities' opposite Tabu in a directorial by late renowned painter M.F. Husain. Kunal Kapoor has been in the industry for 17 years and has featured in popular Hindi films such as "Rang De Basanti", "Bachna Ae Haseeno", "Don 2", "Dear Zindagi" besides "Raag Desh" to name a few.

Between 2018 to 2020, he has only featured in a handful of Hindi movies like "Gold" and "Koi Jaane Na' before entering the OTT space with "The Empire".

Talking to IANS about whether it was a conscious choice to take it slow, the actor explains.

"As an actor, unless you are not right at the top,... I feel like... actors are very helpless pieces of the puzzle," Kunal, who served as an assistant director on the sets of the 2001 film 'Aks' said.

The 43-year-old said: "People feel that actors are very powerful but I don't think that's true because someone writes the content for you and comes to you with a script, then someone produces, directs and gives music... which might be successful or not successful.

"Then somebody releases and finally audiences like it or don't like it... The only thing which you make is the choices that you make at a script level."

Kunal, who "loves" being on film sets, shared the reason why he is not seen much on the big screen.

"Unfortunately the scripts that I have been getting have not been exciting because these are roles I have either played before or very similar sort of roles or I have not been excited about the content so if I had a choice I would be on a film sets 24x7 because I love films sets and I would be acting everyday," he said.

"But unfortunately the content that has been coming my way are not the sort of content I enjoy."

Close to two decade his Bollywood journey is an "interesting" one, is how Kunal likes to call it.

"There have been ups and downs like there are in every actor's career. There have been some great opportunities and then there have been some mis-opportunities. There's been times where you have felt a great amount of success and there have been times of failures as well but I wouldn't be anywhere else," said the actor.

Kunal, who trained for an acting career under British-born Indian theatre director and teacher Barry John, simply loves being in the movies.

"This is the place that I enjoy the most. I love being in the movies. I love telling stories. Whether it is an actor, writer, producer and hopefully a director -- this is the place that I want to be and tell the stories," said the actor, who is seen playing the role of Babur in "The Empire".

'The Empire' streams on Disney+ Hotstar.