Open to working on ‘good scripts’ with producers already aboard, says Pankaj Kapur

The Bollywood veteran, known for critically-acclaimed films such as "Maqbool" , "Rakh", "Ek Ruka Hua Faisla" , "Roja" and "Ek Doctor Ki Maut" , has been making sporadic appearance in movies for the past few years.

Kapur said he has started requesting filmmakers to approach him only when they have a interesting story and a producer backing the project. "I've been saying yes to almost every interesting script that comes my way. Somehow the project doesn't fall in place... It's not as if I'm saying no to work. I'm absolutely open to working if it's a good script with producers who are willing to support it," the actor told PTI in an interview. “These days I've started asking people, 'Do you have a producer? Come to me only if you have a producer'. Otherwise, it's a whole lot of waste of time," he added.

In his career of over 40 years, Kapur has mostly stayed away from big-budget commercial projects, with exception such as "Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon" , "Dus" and "Shaandaar". Asked about this, the 66-year-old actor said he isn't averse to commercial films provided the character offered is interesting.

"As long as the character is interesting and I have something to do as an actor there is no reason to turn it down. I don't want to do films where I'm just there with nothing much to do." The actor said for him the key to be relevant as an artiste is to immerse himself in his work without quantifying it. "There have been actors who have been extremely successful by doing just about everything that came their way. But I do what I like doing and give it a certain time. It could be my weakness as well or it could be my strength. It's God's grace, which goes with you at the end of the day," Kapur added.

The actor currently stars in SonyLIV series "JL 50", also featuring Abhay Deol. The show chronicles the story of an aircraft which crashes 35 years after its take-off. Kapur, who portrays a scientist, said he was intrigued by the originality of the script when writer-director Shailender Vyas narrated it to him. Vyas had approached him years ago for another project but that didn’t materialise. Calling him an “interesting writer”, Kapur said he found the story “JL 50” different from the offers that usually come his way.

"I thought I had something to do as an actor here because most of the times, when you get scripts, there's hardly anything to do. But this presented me an opportunity to play a different character." "JL 50", which also features Piyush Mishra in a pivotal role, started streaming on SonyLIV from Friday.