Shekhar Kapur: Ageless genius

Ageless genius

 Shekhar Kapur on his new venture Qyuki, on life, love and creativity.

Shekhar Kapur has aged. And I’m crushed. But the yesteryear Digjam model, the romantic hero of the TV series Udaan, the bearded director of legendary films like Elizabeth, Masoom and Bandit Queen and the sapiosexual hero of my teenage years is still one of the sharpest minds we have around. Thank god, genius is ageless. The crinkly smile is still there. So is the high-wattage charm as is the slow, smoky drawl as he weaves his magic with words, imagery and insights. In Bangalore, Kapur is visiting the Qyuki office, peopled with young, bright employees working on his and AR Rahman’s vision of a social networking platform for creative expression. Tyres double up as seating in the reception and auto-rickshaws are retrofitted to become tables and shelves. A four-wheeled cart becomes the base of a conference table where we engage in an hour-long discussion.

When Kapur hears I’m from Society, he fires a volley of questions. ``Who is the owner? Nari Hira? How is he?’’ Shekhar has an anecdote about my boss and says he will narrate it only on the condition that I write about it. But before waiting for me to accept the condition he starts, ``I was seeing Shabana (Azmi) in those days and Stardust was always writing about Shabana dating a Chartered Accountant. When I made Masoom, there were two lines in the film which I still remember to this day, which were said by a very rich woman. You know that certain kind of rich woman… When asked if she reads Stardust she says, `Yes, but I read it only in the bathroom, not in front of everyone.’ I had to remove those lines when my producer told me Nari Hira had bought the rights to sell the film overseas. He told me if there was anyone who could sell the film overseas, it was him,’’ he smiles.

``Nari was a feared man,’’ he tells me, his eyes sparkling with reminiscences and then he steers the conversation back to the present.

Qyuki is Kapur’s latest venture and I’m at his office to talk to him about it. But you can’t meet Kapur with one agenda. The conversation leaps from Qyuki to environmental issues to love.

With Qyuki, AR Rahman and Kapur want to foster a creative community, on a social networking platform. About how Qyuki started, Kapur says, ``I always felt that one of the reasons that India is not where it belongs is that most of our people are not allowed to express themselves. They don’t have information, they don’t have contact with each other… We’re one of the world’s most imaginative societies – everybody draws, everybody sings, everybody tells stories, everybody dances…and then everybody goes on to be effectively a peon. Our whole education system is geared towards the killing of the creative instinct. I was very concerned about it. We call this thing the bottom of the pyramid. So I started to think that we should be provoking the bottom of pyramid. I was hugely interested in technology. When you ask people what they do, they tell you they’re policemen or teachers or babus. But ask them what they really want to do and then everyone says `actually, I want to be a poet or a dancer or a painter…’ Qyuki (meaning because) should be called `Actually’’, because that’s what I hear people telling me. I’ve never met a policemen, or an armyman or a corporate head who hasn’t told me, actually I want to be a poet… ’’ he smiles.

When Kapur started work on Qyuki, he says he asked himself how he could beat Facebook. ``You have to set huge goals for yourself, right?’’ he laughs. ``Facebook was born to be something different. Facebook was really born because that guy wanted to date. Qyuki was born to create a social networking site which would give people the ability to creatively share their ideas with each other, and as bandwidth and reach expands, more people start to share. ‘’

With 61 million Internet users in India, Kapur sees the Internet as a medium that will satiate the thirst for knowledge and information. Hence Qyuki’s technology platform has been developed in-house and deployed on Cisco’s state-of-the-art datacentre technology.

Qyuki currently has four different genres with experts for each of them - Imtiaz Ali for films and video, Chetan Bhagat for story writing, Ranjit Barot for music and Suresh Natarajan for photography.

For Kapur it’s a personal mission to unlock creative self-expression, knowing of a time in India when communication was fraught with obstacles and access to information was limited. ``I remember a time when TV was Doordarshan and programmes like Krishi Darshan. An international call took two days to come through and western music was a short programme on All India Radio called A Date with You or something. In that India I remember people were so thirsty to be in contact with the rest of the world. If I could feel that thirst going to Modern School and St Stephen’s College, imagine the thirst felt by a kid living in a village - `what lies beyond my village; how can I express myself beyond this village?’ I set up this platform to address this demand.’’

In Rahman he seems to have found the right partner to craft Qyuki’s vision. ``Look what Rahman is doing besides making lots of money,’’ he smiles. ``Rahman has started a music school. I have never seen him stressed out. Even before the release of a film, he’s thinking about his school. He wants to make it a success. He’s bringing all of the world’s music to Chennai. He believes that the world should share the knowledge of music. He does not get anything out of it but the pleasure of giving back. ‘’

Kapur knows what it means to dream dreams that go beyond oneself. ``It’s good to have dreams,’’ he says. `` When it gets really tough, I talk about Gandhi. He had his eyes on the ball. He wanted to get the British out of India. It was a huge goal. Once you take up a very strong goal that is a little selfless, your ability to overcome obstacles is far greater because you’re passionate about it. You have to have a passion that goes beyond oneself. And a passion that goes beyond oneself, is a passion that can make you deliver. I don’t think Steve Jobs’s passion was to make money. It didn’t ever look like it. He said he would put in hands things he believes people would love. He was a technological toy-maker. That was his passion. It went beyond corporations, beyond share value, beyond money.’’

Similarly for Kapur and Rahman, the fundamental yearning was to be able to look back at their lives and realize that they had opened a Pandora’s box of creativity and imagination.

Qyuki clearly is Kapur’s labour of love. He explains his passion for his latest venture with an analogy that should resonate with everyone:   ``When you love someone very deeply, it’s (makes) a big difference. Then when you start living together, day to day life interferes. If you forget how deeply you love them, the relationship won’t last. Every morning you have to wake up and remind yourself that you deeply love each other and not let little things get in the way of that. It’s easy to fall into the trap of doing the day to day things and lose sight of the dream. My job is to keep the vision intact.’’

Qyuki has four genres now and Kapur says there’s no particular reason why these were chosen above others. ``We have to give people some form to express, right? But finally all things will merge. There’s no reason that when you write a story, someone can’t come and give it some music. Someone can create animation. Ram leela hothi hai, ramayan likhi bhi hothi hai, ram leela ke bare mein picturen banthi hai, ram ka naam japthe hai, temple mein bhi jaathe hai… so when you look at Ram leela, you realize it is multi-media. Multi-media is an age-old concept. 360 degree marketing is not a new concept. Now with technology, it’s easier. ‘’

Kapur is sure that the creative community on Qyuki will find their own mentors eventually. ``Someone sitting in Arunachal Pradesh does not want me. They like their local stars. They’ll form a community around their local star and that community will form a new local star. And that one will become the most important to them. At that time we lose control as we should.’’

Kapur comes out in support of social media and the internet when he says that they allow you to make infinite stories. ``Why should stories end? The advent of the Guttenberg press brought a beginning and an end to stories. Before that there must have been a few thousand Mahabharatas told. Who says songs can’t have 350 stanzas. The internet gives you the opportunity for infinite stories. ‘’

Through premium content, Rahman and Kapur nudge the Qyuki community with inspiration to create infinite stories, re-imagine and re-invent. And Kapur, who has been a chartered accountant, actor, model, scuba diving instructor, film-maker, creative partner at Liquid Comics that created original graphic novels, and now entrepreneur, knows that there are no limitations on creativity.

And that’s perhaps why he still multi-tasks. Kapur is presently working on his film Paani, which has been close to his heart for 15 years now. ``Water for Indian audiences was always about barsaat. All the films that have been made have been about the monsoon and farmer related, right up to Lagaan. It was all about pani nahi aya tho kheti nahi hogi. But nobody ever talked about paani hoga hi nahi. Nobody believed me when I said that our cities will run dry. And then when I went abroad, everybody asked, `what’s the problem with water? There’s plenty of it.’ Now if you walk down the street and ask the same question, people will tell you that the next wars will be fought over water and not oil. Everyone is aware. So now it’s time to make the film.’’

Although shooting has not yet begin, Kapur plans to engage with the community during the course of making the film. ``I intended to create a community of 2 to 2.5 million people who have interest in the film and will carry forward the ideas presented in the film and hopefully the community will continue beyond the film.. The film in itself is not the end.’’

Engagement with the community comes easy for Kapur. His Pied Piper-like charm is visible on Twitter where he engages with his 3,67, 214 (as on March 13) followers. Last year, Kapur started a handle called #adswedontbuy and invited all his followers to tweet to him on disingenuous advertisements. It was, no doubt, a great success and the handle was trending for two whole days. ``I was advised to stop tweeting about misleading ads by my Chief Marketing Officer. Companies she approached to advertise on Qyuki had raised objections to that Twitter handle, ’’ he says with a sigh.

Kapur’s genius has endured and captivated people for over four decades. On Twitter as through his films and his multi-media presence, Kapur continues to seduce his fans with his enthusiastic spirit, his refreshing ideas taking on new forms and expression every few years. 

 (This article appeared as the cover story in Society magazine, April 2013)