Ranbir Kapoor has revealed that Sanjay Leela Bhansali did not give him star-kid treatment on the sets of Black while he was assisting him on the Amitabh Bachchan, Rani Mukerji starrer. When I assisted Mr (Sanjay Leela) Bhansali (on Black), he used to really treat me as an assistant director. I used to be kneeling down for hours, he used to hit us, he used to abuse us… that only hardens you and prepares you for the world,” he said. Speaking at an event in Delhi, Ranbir weighed in on whether the commercial aspect takes precedence over creativity in films, as his uncle Randhir Kapoor said that ‘the Raj Kapoor era of films is over’. Randhir recalled how Raj ‘didn’t calculate money’ during the shoot of Bobby and got the rooftops of Gulmarg painted for the film.
Ranbir also said that he is “interested” in making a biographical feature film on the life of his grandfather and Hindi cinema veteran Raj Kapoor. “I’m very much interested in making a biopic on his life. There are so many things which were off the record probably when Rahul uncle was working with him. I know Rahul uncle has many stories which he has not put in the book,” he continued. Published by Bloomsbury India, the book is written by filmmaker Rahul Rawail, who served as an assistant director to Raj Kapoor on films like Bobby, as told to Pranika Sharma. Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu launched the memoir at India Habitat Centre’s Stein Auditorium here on account of the late filmmaker’s 97th birth anniversary. Regarded as the Showman of Hindi Cinema, Raj Kapoor was an actor, a director and producer known for films like Aag, Shree 420, Mera Naam Joker, Ram Teri Ganga Maili, among others. A recipient of Padma Bhushan and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the legendary filmmaker died in 1988 at the age of 63. On the work front, Ranbir is gearing up for the release of Ayan Mukerji’s Brahmastra, the first film of a proposed fantasy trilogy. It marks his first on-screen collaboration with Alia Bhatt and also stars Amitabh Bachchan, Mouni Roy, Nagarjuna Akkineni and Dimple Kapadia.