A hundred flashbulbs go off in a second, but there’s not a shade of shakiness in Kunnal Kapoor’s body language. Standing tall by his celebrated director Maqbool Fida Husain, co-star Tabu and cinematographer Santosh Sivan, the low-profile lanky debutant seems to have taken all the hype in his stride.

“Working for Meenaxi: Tale of 3 Cities was at times very interesting, at times scary and sometimes even frustrating,” smiles Kunnal (picture below). Having worked in a niche film like Meenaxi and being into several odd jobs “from stock-broking to exporting mangoes to Hong Kong”, the bearded actor is now waiting with bated breath for his next big break — in film-maker Rakesh Aks Mehra’s second venture.

Sharing screen space with him in Mehra’s story of four youths would be Aamir Khan, no less. While Atul Kulkarni will play the third man, the fourth is yet to be cast.

Script-reading with the Khan is on in full swing. “Aamir is very meticulous and passionate about his work. He is probing everything about the script in detail,” says the actor in his mid-20s, who got into the mechanics of film-making while assisting Mehra in Aks.

“I was eyeing the role I have been given for long, as Rakesh had written the script some three years ago and I was quite familiar with it. He was considering a whole lot of actors, but one day decided to screen test me. After a couple of tests, I bagged the role,” announces Kunnal. Read the rest of this entry »