Your last few films haven?t done very well. Does that take an emotional toll on you even today?

?On the contrary, that makes life more exciting. I do my worst work when I am very successful. So if you want me to deliver, I need to give flops. I need to maintain a balance - like with ?Bewafaa? and ?Musafir?; they were not huge hits and they were not duds either.?

Is it true that you didn?t want to do ?My Wife?s Murder?, but agreed only after Shekhar Kapur spoke to you?

?How did you find that out? What happened was, when I got the script for ?My Wife?s Murder?, I liked it very much. But it was so drastically different from what I had done earlier, that I was a little skeptical. Because I?m used to these high budget films which are directed by well known directors, and here I had never heard of Jiji Phillips (the director). Don?t get me wrong - I like to do offbeat films once in a while, but at the same time I received a lot of flak from my family when I did ?Eshwar?, ?Lamhe? ,?Parinda? and ?1942...?. Mere ko bahut maar padi thi. Even Vidhu Vinod Chopra was not a big name at that time, you see. Personally, I like to take these chances.

?So I gave the script to my daughter and she liked it. I gave it to my wife?s friend and she liked it. Then I gave it to Anupam Kher?s wife and got the same reaction. All this, while Ramu had no idea that I was freely circulating his script. Then I gave it to Shekhar Kapur and he said I should definitely do it. Even Anupam Kher agreed. That was when I finally gave in. I had already said no, but I called Ramu again and said I wanted to do it. That?s the way it happened. I had to tell so many people! I?m a very hard nut to crack, you see.?

Are you always so skeptical about the roles you take on?

?Yes, because I put in so much hard work - my heart and soul into a film - that I want to be sure that I want to do it. I have to convince myself. For me, acting or making a film is not about making money. Whenever I have had other reasons for doing a film, I have publicly admitted it. Whether it was for money, for my brother, or for my company ? I have never hidden my reasons for doing a film. I did ?Judaai? for my company. But 99.9 times I do a film for my satisfaction, for the love of my work. It is very rare that I do it for money.?

You co-star Suchitra Krishnamurthy is making a comeback after a long time...

?She is the surprise package of the film. I was simply shocked at her performance. The last time I saw her was in ?Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na?. And here she was, back with a mature, violent role, with superb dialogue delivery - so it was surprising. I asked her what she had been doing. I said, ?Have you been doing theatre secretly? Or have you been managing Shekhar?s life properly?? She was so amazing!?

At this stage in your career, when you have seen it and done it all, is it difficult to select interesting roles?

?In fact, it is easier to select scripts now. With all these multiplexes coming up, people are actually experimenting more with storylines. For actors like me, it is the best thing, because a lot of more exciting roles are being written.

People come to me with roles specifically written for me, and swear that if I don?t do the film, they will never make it. They go away and don?t make films for two or three years after that. I know I take a long time to decide, but now is the time for people like me.?

Is there any particular role you still dream of?

?Oh there are so many roles! It?s like an ocean. I don?t think one lifetime is enough for me to explore the different kinds of roles available. Especially with trends changing. I feel like it is the beginning of my career. For example, look at Amitabh Bachchan - he is getting such drastically different roles and doing such a good job of it. Could he think of doing this earlier? He would repeat only one line in his earlier interviews, saying, ?There are no roles for me.? That was seven or eight years ago. But now trends have changed and people are making interesting films.?

Aishwarya Rai has gone West; Mallika Sherawat has gone East. Why is Anil Kapoor not considering international films?

?What happens is - for the girls, it is slightly easier to do. But for the men, we are used to being the central character. We are in a situation where we are used to respectability and stature. Even for character actors, it is easier to take on roles in Hollywood films. But for us lead actors - if you don?t give us a story which revolves around us, we can?t do it. Like for Salman, who has signed ?Marigold?; the film revolves around him. Now I can?t go to Hollywood and do bit roles, can I? I?d rather stay here and do good films and roles. And why should we do something we don?t want to do?

It is not the end of the world. If I do something in Hollywood, I?d rather do something better than what I am doing here. It?s going to take a while for that to happen, but it will definitely happen. For actresses - they are used for their glamour.

People abroad are currently looking at India in an amused sort of way. They like the way Indian women look, their clothes, their jewelry... They are not taking them very seriously. But we are very serious people and, if they come up with something good, why not??

Source: Filmfqre