Sonam with father Anil Kapoor

I could never tell my father that I want to be an actress. Mere moonh se aaj tak nahin nikla ki ‘Papa mujhe actress banna hai’. When Sanjay (Leela Bhansali) Sir told Papa (Anil Kapoor) that he wanted to cast me in his film Saawariya and asked him whether he was ok with it, Papa said, ‘I have so many fans. I have never had any complaint against them so how can I deny my daughter that love? Let my daughter be in the industry. I am also very comfortable because I know that you will give Sonam as much love and respect as I do’.

I am an actress today because of Sir and my father. So I don’t want to let both of them down. My mom (Sunita Kapoor) never wanted me to act, she doesn’t want me to act still; but she’s okay with it now because she knows that I love it. But Papa was very supportive from the beginning. He teased me saying:, ‘I know that there is a full entertainer in you. Saare natak jo karte ho ghar pe, wahi karna hai film mein’.

I greatly admire all that my father has achieved as an actor. But I have always told Papa that he should do more offbeat films. Although I love commercial films, I feel my father is supremely talented and could do more of different cinema. He has done beautiful films like Eeshwar and Woh Saat Din. His nuances and his timing are perfect. I feel what my father had done in Eeshwar is what Hrithik Roshan is doing now but because the media weren’t that active at that time, people did not actually know about such films. I asked Papa: ‘Why are you doing a Lakhan and a Munna and he shot back with a laugh, ‘That’s Chemburgiri and comes naturally to me’.

Fortunately, he has not been typecast as an art or a commercial hero. He wants me to strike a balance between the two.

Papa has handled his career so well that I am hungry for his advice. I always ask him how he has managed his career and personal life so well. How is it possible that he has not got any negative media attention? Everybody is so positive about him. He has not got any criticism about his work. He said: ‘Your life is like a bank balance. You will reap whatever you sow. If you are good as a person and if you work hard, you will always reap the rewards. Just be honest and good and don’t hurt anybody. Don’t step on anybody’s toes’.

Sonam with father Anil Kapoor

Papa never brings his work home but whenever I need his advice, he is there for me. Of course I will always be his daughter and I will always be a five-year-old to him. He will never give me advice as a professional because it’s not possible for a father to do that with a daughter. There is an emotional bond. A father always wants to protect his daughter a little more.

My dad has been teaching in (Roshan) Taneja Uncle’s acting school. Taneja Sir is amazing. I don’t think there is a better teacher than him. I have also done workshops with Jaideep Bhatia.

While shooting for Saawariya, I would go up to Papa and tell him: ‘Yeh scene kuch jam nahin raha hai, how do I go about it?’ He would tell me to stand on the bed and mummy would scream, ‘Fan dekho, fan dekho’ because I am so tall (5’ 9 1/2). After she would switch off the fan, I would stand on the bed and shout my lines. I faced this problem because at times the lines are not written in a conversational way. So it’s difficult to get the flow. Sanjay Sir was also a tad worried. He didn’t know what to do. So Papa told me, ‘Run up to the terrace and scream the lines out’. I went up to the terrace screamed the lines and came back down. He told me to go up again. He made me do that 20 times! I was dead by the end of it. Then he said, ‘Say the lines’. The lines came out from my mouth very smoothly. I was, like, ‘Hmm, that’s why you are Anil Kapoor’ and we all laughed.

Like my father, I love acting. And like my father, I am a workaholic. Though Salman (Khan) said I am even worse than my father!