Acting was like a door that was there, but it was entirely up to me whether to open it and step inside, says Zahan Kapoor

The latest Kapoor on the block wears the mantle of his surname lightly, brushes off talk about his legacy and says he was actually scared to step into the world of acting. Zahan Kapoor is clear he wants to carve out his own space and not just as Shashi Kapoor’s grandson.

Zahan, who made a splash with his role in the web series Black Warrant could barely speak Hindi growing up, but you’d never know hearing him speak. “I couldn’t speak Hindi when I was a child. I started learning it when I was 18-19 and started doing theatre. It was the time I started getting interested in acting,” the 33-year-old said.

To get it just right, Zahan said he worked with a diction coach to learn the lilt of the Hindi dialect spoken in a middle-class Delhi family for Black Warrant.

His parents Kunal Kapoor and Sheena Sippy had told him he was on his own. In fact, the film genes came from both his parents with his maternal grandfather being Sholay director Ramesh Sippy.

The fear factor was even more, given his lineage. “Acting was like a door that was there, but it was entirely up to me whether to open it and step inside. And even after that, I had to walk the path on my own. My parents told me that this journey demanded hard work, so I have to figure it out myself,” he added.

Lifestyle