‘Seeking attention not my thing’

As an artist and a viewer, Shahid Kapoor said that he enjoys ‘immersive’ storytelling, an experience he felt he could provide to the audience through his debut series ‘Farzi’.

Created by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, the eight-episode show is described as a fast-paced and edgy crime thriller, revolving around a clever underdog street artist’s pursuit to con the system that favours the rich.

Shahid, whose last big screen release was the sports drama ‘Jersey’, said that he doesn’t like ‘attacking characters’ and rather prefers to move people with his performance.

“When you are doing something in a short format, you can be more attacking in terms of the way you approach a character and sometimes that works better. But I don’t like attacking characters. I like to pull people to the screen,” the actor said at the trailer launch event for ‘Farzi’ in Mumbai.

He added, “I enjoy that immersive experience as a viewer and as an actor, it comes naturally to me as opposed to shouting and telling them to give attention. It is not my thing. I love long formats for that reason. I probably consume more terms of hours on a long format than a film. I felt comfortable and I was looking forward to the opportunity.”

Shahid, 41, said that he is glad to begin the series in 2023, as it marks many firsts for him.

“It is the best start of the year that I could have asked for. I was very happy to hear when we decided to launch the show on February 10 as it is my birthday month and it is great. There are a lot of firsts,” said the actor.

As a fan of Raj and DK’s work on ‘The Family Man’ series, Shahid said that he was looking for an opportunity to collaborate with the writer-director duo.

“They called me for a film and I said, ‘That’s okay, but what are you doing in show format?’ They were like, ‘Are you serious? Do you want to do a show?’ and I said, ‘I would love to collaborate with you guys’,” he shared.

The trio decided to revisit an idea they had discussed eight years ago and approach it as a series, said Shahid.

“They had an idea that they had narrated to me eight years ago as a movie and at that time, DK had said that it was too big in terms of length to fit into a story and the best thing that happened to ‘Farzi’ is it didn’t become a movie. I don’t think we would have been able to do justice to it,” he stated.

The actor added, “We have a first season, which is equal to two-and-a-half movies. If people like it, we will make other two-and-half movies.”

The series, set to premiere on ‘Amazon Prime Video’ on February 10, also stars Vijay Sethupathi, Kay Kay Menon, Raashi Khanna, Amol Palekar and Bhuvan Arora in pivotal roles.

Working with ‘Super Deluxe’ star Sethupathi, whom Shahid lovingly calls ‘Makkal Selvan’ (people’s treasure in Tamil), was a privilege for the Bollywood star.

“It has been a privilege to work with him. We don’t have much to do together. We are always running parallel to each other and there are times when we cross tracks. And whatever little I have worked with him; I find his mind interesting. He is truly an actor at heart. I wish to do much more work with him and there is so much to learn from him,” said Kapoor.

Shahid, known for movies like ‘Ishq Vishk’, ‘Jab We Met’, ‘Kaminey’, ‘Haider’ and ‘Kabir Singh’, said that he is at a point in his life when he wants to function more like a team player.

“I feel it is nicer to become a part of the team and if you want to have a voice, it shouldn’t be just because you are a star, but because you are as much a part of the team as everybody else. I wanted to do that in this show, so we spent a lot of time discussing our characters in the show. I vetted myself on that journey,” the actor said.

Produced by ‘D2R Films’, the series will stream in India and more than 240 countries and territories worldwide. Along with Raj and DK, ‘Farzi’ is written by Sita R Menon and Suman Kumar.