Retrospective on Shashi Kapoor at the 46th IFFI Goa

 In Goa, for a retro on his actor father, Shashi Kapoor, Kunal recollects his childhood experiences of attending past IFFIs with his dad and their house in Goa.( Shashi had two other children with Jennifer Kendall: the elder Karan now lives in the UK, daughter Sanjana has moved on from running the Prithvi Theatre to a new travelling theatre project,Junoon) Kunal has taken over Prithvi and points out that it is "a catalyst and does not put up shows of its own."

The dashing,smashing actor,producer and director Shashi  was named Balbir Raj Prithviraj Kapoor at birth on 18 March 1938.

Today, his movements restricted at age 77, Shashi still frequents the theatre which was set up by his much-loved wife who was the eldest daughter of theatre enthusiasts Laura Liddell and Geoffrey Kendall, an English actor-manager who delivered Shakespeare performances throughout India. (Another daughter Felicity is an accomplished actress in the UK)

Kunal recollects how his dad started storing films  in Bombay Labs ( which has closed down ) 

but due to the heat in the studio basement, the films started getting spoiled and he decided to keep the negatives in his son’s room which had 24hrs air-conditioning:-)

On the difference between the current crop of actors and the previous generation: The earlier generation gave more importance to acting and film as a vocation unlike today’s actors to whom fame seems more important.

He remembers an incident when the Prithvi Theatre was flooded during the Mumbai floods which resulted in damage to the sound track of the movie ‘Utsav’."It will take around one and a half to two years to restore the film and realised its much awaited English version."

 Kunal says his dad never really gave much importance to awards and was shocked to receive the Dad Sahib Phalke Award.

And he is simply not interested in an autobiography. (Others have written reams about Shashi )