Shahid Kapoor on 'Farzi' success: Always challenging to play a guy who is not likeable

Farzi has found an audience across demographics and its lead star Shahid Kapoor is happy that people are connecting with his notsolikeable character of Sunny a talented painter who turns to currency counterfeiting in his streaming debutThe actor who celebrated his 42nd birthday on February 25 days after the premiere of Farzi on Prime Video said the success of the eightepisode series gave him a deep sense of satisfaction as his character is not an easy guy to root forIts always challenging when youre playing a guy who is not likeable or whos not necessarily the guy you want to make friends with or go on a date with Its important for you to make them audience like him even though as the show progresses hes not going to be very likeable in the things that he does Kapoor told PTI in a virtual interviewCreated and directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK Farzi revolves around Sunny Kapoor who finds himself drawn into the dark while he plots a perfect con A task force officer played by Vijay Sethupathi has made it his goal to eliminate the threat Sunny represents to the countryKnown for his roles in Kaminey Haider Udta Punjab and Kabir Singh Kapoor said the challenge for him was to ensure that people feel empathy for Sunny Its always for me as an actor much more challenging to pick up a character like that As an actor through the emotionality and his journey I have to be able to make the audience like him So thats always more complex challenging and exciting And when you pull it off it gives you a deep sense of satisfaction he addedAs someone who had bingewatched Raj amp DKs acclaimed Prime Video series The Family Man the actor said he loved the director duos work in the streaming space The two best known for their movies such as Go Goa Gone and Shor In The City initially met Kapoor to discuss a film projectThat movie eventually became Farzi and Kapoor said as a fan of The Family Manhe could not be happier We were talking about a movie and I asked them to have a show and they said Are you serious You want to do a show I said I love you as filmmakers you guys are killing it with how youre telling stories on OTT which is very different from telling stories in two hours in the theatre as opposed to watching seven hours of content sitting at home They told me that they turned Farzi into a show and I said Okay amazing Lets do it he recalledThe web series seems to be connected to the universe of The Family Man fronted by Manoj Bajpayee Which is why fans were excited to see the allknowing Chellam sir Uday Mahesh from The Family Man season two make an appearance in Farzi In fact Vijay Sethupathis character who is hot on the heels of a counterfeiting gang even seeks help from Manoj Bajpayees intelligence agent Srikant Tiwari in a phone callAsked about the world of The Family Man and Farzi merging somewhere in the future Kapoor said he was open to all possibilities Its so cool that you can do things like that today and you can create universes which can connect if required and can be independent when they need to be You can give the audience that kind of experienceAlso Read Shahid Kapoor confirms Raj and DKs Farzi season 2The fact that people notice these things and are excited about them helps you understand that its something that works So why not Im open to all possibilities he addedKapoors wife Mira Kapoor and actorbrother Ishaan Khatter whom he described as his biggest critics loved Farzi They will cut me down to size every chance they get And they just binged on the show and they just really loved the show They told me it was one of their favourite shows ever Not just Hindi shows but one of their favourite shows ever I remember one day where Farzi was the number one show on Amazon globally not just in India my brother called me and he said I told you this ones just going to explode he saidNot just the family the New Delhiborn actor said he was surprised to see the series appeal to people across demographics Whats very interesting about the show is that from my driver to my NRI cousins all of them are connecting with it So I realised that its cutting across demographics and that was really special because every piece of content has its core audience Then sometimes that audience becomes slightly wider because of the quality of the product This one just has a really wide audience Its cutting across almost all demographics And that was amazingPersonally Kapoor said he is happy that his monologue on the middlefinger class where his character rails against the economic issues faced by the middle class in the country has resonated with the audienceThe middlefinger class dialogue was one of my favourite dialogues I have a relationship with showing my middle finger Wherever I do it that film or that show tends to do very well I dont know why that happens the actor said referring to his characters in Farzi and Kabir Singh The actor said he could understand why the dialogue hit homeAlso Read Prime Video launches song Paisa Hai Toh from FarziYou feel those things all the time That scene where they go to the club and the dude looks at them and says Maybe you should just go on the terrace open a couple of bottles sit there and drink Thats just so derogatory but thats how the middle class sometimes feels I knew thats going to connect because I could feel that connection with that time in my life he addedKapoor has a busy year ahead with a film billed as an edgy actioner spread over one night directed by Ali Abbas Zafar followed by a highconcept quirky love story with Kriti Sanon which will also be released in 2023This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever