'To do comedy, you need to be a good actor'

After surviving quite a rough year amidst the spat with Sunil Grover, Kapil Sharma has made a commendable return to movies with his upcoming flick Firangi. Though the story is set in the pre independence era, Kapil refrained from calling it a conventional period drama.

"Every movie made about partition has only shown the dark side of those times, focusing on atrocities, wars, and massacres. We are stuck with the negativity that has been prevailing in our minds. Considering this, we thought to take an attempt and show the flip side, which is indeed quite positive. Our film majorly focuses on the commoners who were more concerned about earning their living rather than the departure of Britishers from India. We have shown how people from different communities and religion, used to live together before partition, sharing joys and happiness," said Kapil during an interaction.

But how difficult is it to convince the audience that you are as good an actor as you are a comedian?

"You won't miss the comedy in this film at all. The only difference is, in a comedy show, the audience expect every second dialogue to be funny but the film offers us the space to bring versatility – including, comedy, drama suspense – at a single platform", mentioned Kapil.

He had been in news for something or the other throughout the year. Is the negative criticism going to influence the business of his movie? "No, I don't feel so. I don't think there is a single actor in the film industry who did not get stuck into controversies for some reason. More the people love us, higher are their expectations. And so, if they hear any negative news surrounding us, it's natural for them to come up with harsh criticism. I always take such criticism in the positive light because it shows how much people admire and love me."

The ace comedian, who feels that television, demands more efforts and hard work, shall be seen playing an underdog character Manga in Firangi.

Kapil, who considers himself as his biggest critic, doesn't prefer aping other actors just to get included in the mainstream cinema. "I don't try to ape anyone. Say it Shahrukh or Akshay, everyone has his own style and specialty. If I ever think of doing romance like SRK or perform stunts like Akshay, I would end up laughing at myself. I always prefer to do things that I am good at," he spoke further.

What are his expectations from the movie? "Well, I just want that if a person is spending 200 bucks to watch my movie, I would never want him to leave the theatre crying and disheartened. As far as getting included in the 100 crore club is considered, I will explain you the technical side of it. A filmmaker spends 120 crores in making a particular movie and if it crosses the benchmark of 100 crores, we declare it 'Hit'. But it doesn't work this way. It's just a way to fool the audience. The total expenditure on Kis Kisko Pyaar Karu was approximately eight crore but the movie managed to get box office collection of 10 crores on its opening day. This is what we call a hit in real terms," said Kapil.