TLI Staff
New Delhi: Anil Kapoor in his over four-decade long career has done more female-centric films than his contemporaries and never had any qualms if his leading ladies got paid more than him on many occasions.
“All my leading ladies have done their best films with me chaahe wo Madhuri ho, chahe Aishwaya ho, chahe wo Sriji (Sridevi) hon, chahe Kajol ho,” Anil Kapoor said in a chat with Kareena Kapoor in her show What Women Want Season 3.
These are also among the most memorable films of Kapoor where the actor had no insecurities about women playing bigger and more impactful roles than him. In Beta, Madhuri was a show-stealer trying to save her husband from the evil intentions of his evil stepmother while Anil doted on her. This was also the film that made Madhuri the Dhak Dhak girl.
In Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai, Aishwarya Rai played a rape victim ostracized by society and is welcomed by Anil’s Avinash to stay at his home with his two young children. Though the film didn’t work, Aishwarya’s work was appreciated.
With Sridevi, Anil Kapoor worked in Laadla where he gets married to a rich industrialist’s daughter and agrees to become her house husband. Also, in Judaai, Sridevi sells Anil Kapoor to Urmila Matondkar while he struggled to voice what he really thinks. In Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain opposite Kajol, he plays a commitment-phobic man who enters contract marriage with his father’s employee, played by Kajol.
MANY LEADING LADIES GOT MORE MONEY THAN ME
Anil Kapoor reminds Kareena that he payed her a lot of money for Veere Di Wedding. When the film was offered to Bebo, she demanded more money than the hero, which Anil Kapoor agreed to pay. “My team informed me that the heroine is demanding more money than the hero, and I said okay, de do,” says Anil Kapoor.
Kapoor says women should be encouraged to take up more female-centric roles.
“There are times when girls want to do women centric films but they are so influenced that they would still want to do them with successful heroes,” said Anil Kapoor, adding, “there is this side of the girls also where we have to push them and tell them in the industry daro mat, karo.”
WHEN RHEA TOLD ANIL: YOU CAN’T AFFORD ME
Anil Kapoor is a feminist at home as well and women in his house have always taken their own decisions.
“I always feel women are superior and I’ve always treated women as superior. And I’ve never…they take their own decisions. Sunita takes her own decisions, Sonam takes her own decisions. Sonam being in AK vs AK was also her decision. Rhea also said no, she said you all can’t afford me. When Rhea also has lot of, obviously…she has her experience professionally,” said Anil.
NEITHER SUNITA NOR I HAVE EVER ENTERED KITCHEN
“Before I got married and kahin na kahin maine apni shaadi ko isliye delay kiya, kyunki Sunita ki pahli condition thi main kitchen mein nahi jaungi. (I delayed my wedding because Sunita had this conditions that she would not enter kitchen). To jis din mujhe pata chala ki I can have that kind of help to run the kitchen, that’s the time I proposed to her and I said, now I have that capacity, so kitchen mein naa Sunita jaati hai na main jaata hoon,” Anil said.
Their daughter Rhea however loves to cook and sends food regularly to her friends. “Rhea is a revelation. Absolutely, she is one of the best chefs, the best cooks and she loves being in the kitchen. So whenever she wants to de-stress, she loves cooking, she loves feeding. She sends food to all our friends and because of her now all the best chefs from India are sending her good food and we and her friends are getting to enjoy it,” the actor added.
Watch full interview below: