Before Rita Brown, the make-up-free, chain-smoking, emotionally broken detective she plays in her new ZEE5 crime thriller, was very different. Karisma Kapoorwho appeared on set without a script, took over the direction in two Hindi words, and somehow helped create the most beloved comedies of the decade. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actor opens up about the chaotic, joyous and productive era of Bollywood comedy in the ’90s, where he: Govinda, Paresh RawalKader Khan and Shakti Kapoor it functioned like a film actor and like a traveling theater troupe.
‘Faad do’: How David Dhawan directed Karisma Kapoor in two words
In today’s Bollywood, where bound scripts, agency agreements and legal contracts govern every production, it is almost impossible to imagine a top actor walking into a set with no scripted scenes and walking away with a blockbuster. But that, says Karisma Kapoor, was just a Tuesday in 1990.Kapoor spontaneously replied, “In a way, it’s great to make things easy. Then we worked on gut instinct, passion and belief.”“There are so many films I’ve done that don’t have a script or written scenes. You’d go to the set and everything would unfold on set within minutes. These are the blockbusters and blockbusters I’m talking about. A director like David Dhawan would say ‘Faad do’ (kill him) to me in Hindi and I’d understand exactly what he wanted,” continued Kapoor.
‘Haseena Maan Jaayegi ‘and the actors functioned like a theater group
Karisma Kapoor continued, mentioning how ‘Haseena Maan Jaayegi’ (1999) stands out because of a cast of naturally gifted comic performers.“A lot of the scenes in ‘Haseena Maan Jaayegi’, for example, were completely improvised. We were like a crew or a gang — Chi Chi (Govinda), Paresh ji, Kader bhai, Shakti ji. We worked together every day on a different film. So there was a lot of comic synergy between us, almost like a theater troupe.”Kapoor continued, “There are times when I’ve done four shifts a day; three shifts in Bombay and one at night in Hyderabad. So I’ve grown up in this industry, I’ve been working since I was 16 or 17. It’s been about taking each step at a time and learning to climb the ladder.”
More about ‘Brown’
In Brown, starting June 5 on ZEE5, Kapoor plays Rita Brown, an alcoholic and emotionally unstable Anglo-Indian cop in Kolkata, directed by Abhinay Deo (‘Delhi Belly’) and adapted from Abheek Barau’s novel ‘City of Death’.
