IFFI GOA: Pankaj Kapur slams TV

For someone who has played some of the most lovable characters on the screen, actor Pankaj Kapur isn't exactly the same in person in real life. And when you happen to be from one of the new media (like the Internet for instance), chances are that you will have to chase him for months before you actually get him for an interview.

But then again, the chase is perhaps well worth it. Kapur is at IFFI in Goa to promote his film Dharam, which ran into a lot of controversy when its maker Bhavana Talwar raised a hue and cry over India's nominations to the Oscars. After a long patient wait at a plush hotel in Goa, Pankaj Kapur finally relents and settles down for an interview.

The actor has been giving the usual press interviews talking about his film, refraining from commenting on the controversies and insisting on its commercial success. So when we ask him if it was alright for us not to ask him any questions related to Dharam and the controversies surround it, he looks tad surprised but adds quickly, "You can ask me anything you want." So we do exactly that and quiz him about everything, everything including his alleged rift with brother-in-law Naseeruddin Shah. Excerpts from an interview:

At a recent press conference, Shekhar Kapur remarked about the lack of variety in themes and scripts in Bollywood. As a senior actor would you hold it true?

I would not want to comment on what Shekhar has to say because he is a very knowledgeable man. But over the last few years, the scripts and characters I am being offered are certainly getting to be more and more interesting. The Hindi film industry today has a lot more to offer in terms of themes and ideas, which is why you can see a lot more of me these days on the big screen.

Would you say then that television offers more scope to experiment than cinema?

Certainly! But I'd be talking of the television industry as it existed about 10-15 years ago. And because it was that way, I took up a lot of work on the small screen. Although I did do cinema, my focus then was always television. But TV today has become what cinema was in the mid-70s to the late-80s, very mainstream and uncreative.