Mr India becomes the real hero

he thinks his success is thanks to three cs - "consistency, concentration and cooperation." in an industry where a superstar is born/dead every friday, this hero has survived for 22 years. and how! hyderabad times welcomes you to the world of anil kapoor who was in town for the promotion of his forthcoming release nayak, organised by international timescard and indiatimes."nayak is mudalvan (oke okkadu) adapted to the national audience. we have based the story in maharashtra. it's about shivaji rao, a tv journalist, who confronts the chief minister, takes the hot seat for one day and brings rapid changes in the administration of the state," says anil. to do justice to his portrayal, he has observed and imbibed, "the aggression of karan thapar, the charm of prannoy roy and the cool attitude of rajat kapur." hypothetically speaking, what would anil kapoor like to do, given the chance to be a cm? "my political ambitions are confined to cinema," he evades. after a little persuasion, he says, "in reality, i might be able to do much more than shivaji rao in nayak. since i already have a position and good contacts, i might be able to do things faster." ask him who is the best cm and he says, "i've met many - dig vijay singh, vijay deshmukh, chandrababu naidu... they are all doing a great job." he recollects his nayak experiences excitedly, "i wanted to work with director shankar since his movie gentleman. but he was busy with kadhalan (premikudu). for nayak shankar and his team have put in a lot of effort. we've shot a stunt sequence using 36 cameras, which is a world record." his most testing scene, though, was the one where he's covered with mud from head to toe. "we shot the sequence for 18 days. i built my physique for three months prior to the shoot. they kept pouring wet mud on me at regular intervals," he recalls. some of his most successful films have been remakes of southern films. "i'm in awe of southern scripts and directors. eashwar, beta, virasat... are all remakes. eashwar (swatimuthyam) and virasat (thevar magan) were the toughest ones. i had to measure up to kamal haasan. i think he is the finest actor in india today." not many actors have lasted as successful heroes for over two decades. what does it take to survive? "i've never been slotted as a romantic hero or anything else. i've acted as a grandfather in eashwar and a father figure in lamhe. i've portrayed varied roles in mr india, eashwar, lamhe and pukar. maybe, that's the reason. sean connery and mel gibson are classic examples of timeless images," he points out. nayak follows a national award winning performance in pukar. what do awards mean to him? "awards reassure you and help boost your confidence. my son is the happiest person when i win awards. he predicted that i would bag the national award for pukar," he smiles. talking of today's audience, he says, "the audience isn't interested in nri love stories anymore. they look forward to movies like lagaan and gadar where the hero shows a lot of motivation to contribute something for the people," states anil kapoor. remind him that yash chopra's dilwale dulhaniya le jayenge has crossed 300 successful weeks at a theatre in mumbai and he quickly says, "that was released in 1996. now the trend has definitely changed." he sure has a finger on the pulse of the audience. that, probably, is the secret of his long innings. right, anil?