Before Rita Brown, the no-makeup, chain-smoking, emotionally shattered detective she plays in her new ZEE5 crime thriller, there was a very different Karisma Kapoor, one who showed up on set without a script, took direction in two Hindi words, and somehow helped create the most beloved comedies of an entire decade. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actress has opened up about the chaotic, joyful and wildly productive era of 90s Bollywood comedy, where she, Govinda, Paresh Rawal, Kader Khan and Shakti Kapoor operated less like a film cast and more like a travelling theatre troupe.
‘Faad do’: How David Dhawan directed Karisma Kapoor in two words
In today’s Bollywood, where bound scripts, agency agreements and legal contracts govern every production, it is almost impossible to imagine a top-tier actress walking onto a set with no written scenes and walking off with a blockbuster. But that, Karisma Kapoor says, was simply Tuesday in the 1990s.Kapoor characteristically answered, “In a way, it’s really good that things are streamlined. Back then we worked on gut instinct, passion, and belief.”“There are so many films I’ve done that had no script or written scenes. You would go to the set and it would all get developed on set within minutes. These are big, hit films I am talking about. A director like David Dhawan would just tell me, in Hindi, ‘Faad do’ (kill it) and I’d understand exactly what he wanted,” Kapoor continued.
‘Haseena Maan Jaayegi ‘ and the cast that functioned like a theatre troupe
Karisma Kapoor continued, citing how ‘Haseena Maan Jaayegi’ (1999) stands out owing to a cast of naturally gifted comic performers.“A lot of scenes in ‘Haseena Maan Jaayegi’, for instance, were entirely improvised. We were like a crew or a gang — Chi Chi (Govinda), Paresh ji, Kader bhai, Shakti ji. We’d be working together on a different film every day. So there was a great comic synergy between us, almost like a theatre troupe.”Kapoor continued, “There are times where I’ve done four shifts a day; three shifts in Bombay and one in Hyderabad at night. So I’ve grown up in this industry, I’ve been working since I was 16 or 17 years old. It’s been about taking each step at a time and learning while climbing the ladder.”
More about ‘Brown’
In Brown, streaming on ZEE5 from June 5, Kapoor plays Rita Brown who is an alcoholic, emotionally unstable Anglo-Indian cop in Kolkata, directed by Abhinay Deo (‘Delhi Belly’) and adapted from Abheek Barau’s novel ‘City of Death.’
