New Delhi: The latest episode of ‘Koffee With Karan’ Season 7 featured Anil Kapoor and his ‘JugJugg Jeeyo’ co-actor Varun Dhawan on the couch. The episode had discussions on marriage, relationships – for a change this time about Karan Johar’s – and many other interesting topics.
As expected nepotism was also discussed and during the entire conversation Anil Kapoor shared that he was insecure about Jackie Shroff in his initial days.
Karan Johar questioned Anil about nepotism, a word that became famous in the chat show itself by Kangana Ranaut. She had called the filmmaker the “flag-bearer of nepotism” and also “movie mafia”.
Anil replied: “I don’t take it seriously. You just keep on doing your work and your work speaks. If you are an actor you can’t pass on the legacy to your brother or your son. It’s either you have it or you don’t have it.”
Anil added: “When I started my career at that time it was of course Sunny (Deol), there was Sanju (Sanjay Dutt).”
When Karan interrupted to add Jackie Shroff’s name, Anil said, “Jackie was an outsider in a way but still he got the first break from Subhash Ghai. So he himself became like an A-lister just with that one announcement. I, at that time, was doing bit roles, I was doing south Indian films. I did feel kind of, not feeling good about it. Why?”
Karan then asked, “Did you feel, Jackie who was not an insider, he was an outsider who had the privilege of being launched by Subhash Ghai? You felt a little…?”
Anil replied, “I still felt it ya. The day I signed Yash Chopra’s film, I felt, ‘Oh now I’m fine’.
“Did you feel insecure about Jackie’s success at that time?” Karan nudged again.
Anil responded, “Well yeah. He became a huge huge success.”
Recalling an incident, Anil shared: “I remember so well that and he was such a sweet guy. We would be shooting and whenever any autograph book would come to him, he knew they are taking his autograph. But (gestures Jackie passing the autograph book to Anil) ‘Sign karna (Sign it)’. I knew that actually all of them had come for him but he would give it to me. Then I would sign and then he would sign.”
Anil and Jackie featured together in many movies and were considered a hit pair. The worked in ‘Andar Bahaar’, ‘Karma’, ‘Kala Bazaar’, ‘Ram Lakhan’ , ‘Parinda’, ‘1942: A Love Story’, ‘Trimurti’ among others.