Bollywood star Anil Kapoor went off script and turned on the charm for his UAE fans at an event to promote Season 2 of his hit show, 24, on Wednesday evening in Dubai. The 59 year old was scheduled to sit down for a live Q&A with an invite-only audience at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel organised by the network Colors.
But a few minutes into the session with the evening’s two MCs, the age-defying actor, dressed in a dapper suit, suddenly got up and announced, “Let’s make this more exciting. Let’s ask the audience instead.”
The move drew loud cheers as the questions came thick and fast:
“What’s your favourite movie?”
“24. I know it’s a TV show, but it’s shot like a movie,” the actor answered.
“How many hours of sleep do you usually get?”
“Six hours.”
“How are you always so positive?” was a question that received a lot of cheers.
“I am grateful for everything I have in my life … for my family whom I love, and my children. I feel blessed.”
“How do you manage to looks 25 all these years?”
“Because I’m doing 24.”
“I love you,” screamed one fan.
“I love you too,” Kapoor replied, without wasting a breath.
The second season of 24, the Hindi adaptation of the hit American series starring Kiefer Sutherland, premiered last month on Colors. Kapoor returns as Jai Singh Rathod, director of the fictional Anti-Terrorism Unit (ATU). In the first season, he successfully stopped an assassination attempt on the prime minister’s life but at a huge personal cost. In the new season, he’s a broken man looking for redemption while another terrorist threatens to release a deadly virus that could devastate the city of Mumbai.
Kapoor, an established name in Bollywood, found international fame after his role in the Oscar-winning 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire, and went on to star in the eighth season of the American show 24, where he played Omar Hassan, the president of a fictitious Islamic country. He later acquired the rights to adapt the film in Hindi for an estimated Rs1.50 billion (Dh82 million), in what would become the most expensive Indian TV show in history. “It’s like when you adopt a daughter,” Kapoor said at the event in Dubai when asked about the pressures of adapting a well-known international show. “You want to give it your best shot. It’s a big responsibility to live up to expectations.”
He told the audience that Season 2 would be bigger and better than the first season, which ended in December 2013.
Asked whether he thought Jack Bauer and Jai Singh Rathod would get along, he didn’t need to think long: “After a few drinks, yes,” he said with a wink.
Read the full interview in tabloid! soon.
Don’t miss it
24 airs on Colors in the UAE every Saturday and Sunday at 9pm.
