He’s a movie star who was a VJ who’s well on his way to becoming a musician. All charm but with the discretion of an age-of-the-’gram star, the actor talks films, wish lists, and one almost-tattoo
Photographs by Sarang Gupta. Styling by Tania Fadte
In his latest film, Metro... In Dino, Aditya Roy Kapur plays Parth, a travel content creator who jets between the mountains and the beach, gaining friends, forgetting girlfriends, and taking off his T-shirt with equal ease. His trajectory follows the trope: free-spirited man-child meets a grownup woman, in this case one with anxiety and a fringe you can’t ignore, and finally gets pinned down. Except, on close analysis, the fuckboy in question actually seems to be the only character with all the answers. Parth is a bunch of green flags: he can hold a tune at an impromptu jam session (it’s also Kapur’s first singing stint in a film), he’s funny, has his own income, is a reliable friend, and looks great in a shower curtain. He’s also emotionally self-sufficient and doesn’t need a relationship to keep him happy. In a film where the running theme is that most marriages are pretty dysfunctional, Parth’s life seems pretty sorted.
It’s a grey July afternoon. We’re shooting at a studio in Bandra, Mumbai, when I ask Kapur if he sees any similarities between himself and the character. After all, he is often praised in interviews for being “easy-going”, “laidback”, even, dare I say it, “happy-go-lucky”. He smiles disarmingly and shrugs. “I didn’t really think of him that way. I was just trying to play the part,” he says, before adding, “But I know that when [Anurag] Basu was asked who from the cast is the closest to their character in the film, he said it was me. So, looking at it from his eyes, maybe, yes.”
During our conversation, the same sort of sequence will play out in many ways. I’ll toss him a question about something that I hope will elicit some interest, and I’ll get another great toothy smile, a shrug, and an “I don’t know” or “I don’t think too much about that”.
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Shirt, Itoh
Kurta and jacket, 11.11/eleven eleven. Pants, Eka
This borderline blasé attitude of not revealing too much... Is it his way of coping with fame’s glare? I can’t tell if it is deliberate evasiveness that comes with years of practice at successfully dodging prying media or if he is just recorder-shy. Maybe he’s wary of being reduced to a sound bite, one that erases any nuance. Or maybe he genuinely is just as unfazed, as mellow as he’s made out to be. Luckily, I have 30 minutes to find out.
In the background, the Spotify playlist that Kapur put at the start of our shoot is still looping. It’s a broody Irish post-punk band called Fontaines D.C., whose ominous bassline and electronic, dirge-like sound aptly captures the gloomy weather outside the studio. “I’ve been listening to them for the last month,” he tells me, before getting back to the camera. In no time, he’s gazing meditatively as he reclines in a cosy colour-blocked knit. Next, he lounges, looking like some Impressionist painting, and then again, looks up moodily at the sky, wrapped up in a long overshirt. Even the sight of an overfriendly cat on set doesn’t break his pensive camera face.
Music seems to be Kapur’s lodestar. He’s played the guitar ever since he was a teenager, was part of a band at St Xavier’s College, and even now is seen casually strumming the instrument on his television cameos. But believe it or not, he wouldn’t be an actor if it weren’t for the music. He once shared that he signed his first film, the Salman Khan-starrer London Dreams (2009), because it offered the opportunity to work in London for a month and play a guitar (!). His biggest hit, the one that rocketed him and co-star Shraddha Kapoor to fame, was Aashiqui 2 (2013), where he played a lovelorn, alcoholic musician.
Outside film sets, Kapur has frequently hinted that he might put out his own music soon, so I try and probe a bit more into that. “I’ve written and composed all the songs. The process of making music is so different from a film. Getting into the studio, actually locking down a song, fine-tuning it... It’s a different beast and that’s been great,” he says. Does he have a musical mentor? A band he plays with? He’s vague, only revealing, “I just jam with my old friends and there are people I bounce my own music off, but I can’t really say more at the moment.”
He will, however, talk about his favourite YouTuber—the music producer and multi-instrumentalist Rick Beato, who’s known for his interviews with musicians and informative song breakdowns. Or discuss his forever playlist, which features classic millennial-era favourites—Red Hot Chili Peppers, Radiohead, Arcade Fire—whom he considers his musical icons. Just last month, he watched British rock band Pulp in London. Like many teenagers, he went through a period where he was obsessed with The Doors. He recalls that time when he walked into a tattoo parlour to get Jim Morrison’s face inked across his back, only to get turned away by the tattoo artist (bless the man).
Shirt, jacket, and trousers, Sandro
The beginning of Kapur’s 20-year-long career is a story that’s been written about extensively.
Kapur already had ties with the industry—oldest brother Siddharth Roy Kapur is a successful producer, and his middle brother, Kunaal Roy Kapur, is an actor as well. A friend of the family asked him to audition for a role on Channel V. At first, Kapur was reluctant; he only went after his mother, Salome Roy Kapur, pushed him to do it, a good thing because he then went on to spend four years as a VJ, gaining confidence in front of the camera before transitioning to films. Over 15 years ago, he landed London Dreams. Then came the comic caper Action Replayy, which was followed by the Sanjay Leela Bhansali-directed Guzaarish (2010). Since then, he’s bared his abs in service of playing a struggling artist in Fitoor (2016), an ex-convict out for revenge in Malang (2020), a commando trying to save the nation in the box-office dud, Rashtra Kavach Om (2002), and an undercover agent in The Night Manager (2023), which was nominated for the 2024 International Emmy Awards.
Sweater, Hermès. Jeans, Rkive City
He’s got a sizeable number of action films under his belt. His latest, Metro… In Dino, which opened to a good box-office start, is an anthology that got together intergenerational screen talent: from Neena Gupta to Konkona Sen Sharma to Sara Ali Khan. It is also his second film with director Anurag Basu, with whom he last worked on Ludo (2020). In an interview with Anupama Chopra, Kapur talked about Basu as a director who prefers to “keep you a little off kilter” by preparing synopses for each character but sharing the exact scripts only on the day of the shoot itself. “It’s almost like play,” he said of the process, “and it allows you and him to come onto set and do something that’s not preordained.”
Kapur has this knack for lending his roles, even minor ones, an attractive veneer of mystery, which he possesses in person too. It feels impossible to crack through it.
At 39, he’s just three years older than me and on the cusp of turning 40. I’ve never had fans scream my name or signed a ₹6 crore contract. Naturally, I’m already a little nervous about what 40 might look like. Each decision seems precious. Time seems to get swallowed up quicker. Does Kapur have any of these concerns? “No, I don’t think about it too much, honestly. It just feels nice to grow older and kind of grow into knowing yourself better. There’s no use losing sleep over these things you can’t control,” he says, plucking at his trousers.
It's almost annoying how Zen he seems. How much at peace with himself. Was he like this even when he was 20? He laughs and reiterates his point, “Not at all, and that’s what I’m saying. I’m not claiming to have much wisdom, but that’s why it’s nice to get older. You get at least some wisdom from that.”
We’re about 15 minutes through our interview when I bring up the rumours about his mug showing up on Raya, which is essentially Tinder for the rich and famous. I ask him if he’s ever swiped there, and in a classic Aditya Roy Kapur move, he smiles, unfazed, but looks over at his agent, who jumps over to ask that we move on to a different topic. I tried.
Yet even if he won’t talk about it, rumours swirl about his love life. The media is desperate to pair him with someone, while many of his online fans seem to prefer that their internet boyfriend (albeit one who rarely posts on Instagram) remains single. But Kapur seems unperturbed by all the attention, happy to ride the wave without giving too much or too little of himself. He frequently jokes about all the paparazzi attention: “It’s taught me to iron my T-shirt at least.” (Later, when he leaves our set, he is greeted by an army of paps, and goes on to accept a gift and pose with a fan.)
Kapur doesn’t come across as your typical Bollywood actor. He’s not a movie geek. He’s not attention-hungry. And when he comes on set, he doesn’t thrum with the kind of overpowering, restless energy that many actors radiate. His appeal is a little more subtle, like the charming South Bombay boy you might meet for drinks and fantasise about taking home to your parents. And while Kapur never set out to be a Shah Rukh Khan, he’s clear that acting is where his calling lies. “It’s not my identity in a sense, but there are no ebbs and flows when it comes to my love for the job,” he insists. “The day I sign a new project, I’m a little bit of a wreck because I know I’m going to be obsessed with it for the next year or the next few months. It’s like I have to sign my life off in some ways. Until it’s over, all I’m going to be doing is thinking of the project, of the character.”
Like most of us, he wants to make it count. “The thing that I aspire to do is exciting work as an actor, work that people want to see, that does well. And if a byproduct of that works out to be that you end up being a movie star, then so be it,” he elaborates. The directors on his wish list right now are Dibakar Banerjee and Vishal Bhardwaj, and when I ask what kind of film he has yet to tackle he pauses to consider. “Just an all-out comedy, something physical, might be fun to do.” His favourite comedies right now are Delhi Belly (his older brother Kunaal was in that) and his most recent watch, the Ben Stiller satire, Tropic Thunder.
Towards the end I ask Kapur how he feels about interviews. He grins again. “I don’t think too much about it; I just jump in,” he replies. “If you are doing promotions and there are 20 interviews in a day, then you might have to prep yourself a bit more to keep the excitement going and put your best foot forward. It’s all just part of the gig. There’s no use trying to fight against it, because what are you going to gain?” There’s that wisdom again.
