There was never a better time for 50-year-old Mumbai actor Anil Kapoor to be living up to his nickname 'Mr India' -- title of the 1987 movie that made him an ageless Bollywood hero.
Kapoor has worked in the Hindi film industry since 1979 and though his fame and fortune have been earned largely in rupees, a low-budget British movie called "Slumdog Millionaire" changed the course of his life in 2009 when it brought home an astonishing eight Academy Awards, including Best Direction and Best Picture.
For his role as a dubious quiz show host, Kapoor shared a Screen Actors Guild Award with his co-stars, for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
Now, Kapoor is one of India's most recognized actors. He is an industry lynchpin between Hollywood and Bollywood, a successful producer of four Hindi films since Anil Kapoor Film Company launched in 2007 and the father of a rising Bollywood actress -- the lissome twenty-something Sonam Kapoor.
That's why Mr India is always smiling under his distinctive moustache, which he's sported in all but three of his hundred-plus movies.
The man is definitely not follically challenged -- his inches-long, extra-shiny head of hair is brushed back like a manicured version of Sonic the Hedgehog. Add to that the legendary stach and I can't help but ask, isn't Anil Kapoor rather attached to his hair?
"Well you know there's good hair days and bad hair days," he says. "But I've got great hair and all of it's still there, so yes I am slightly proud about it."
In the Internet's obsession with filing posts of random unconfirmed facts concerning movie stars, a recent one reports "Anil Kapoor in a Mogambo look." Which means the actor is purportedly going bald for Rajkumar Santoshi's upcoming crime thriller "Power.
Certainly isn't this sacrilegious?
"It's not true," says Kapoor. "I'm contemplating it."
An Indian in Hollywood
But far from Bollywood leading man roles, or his home production comedies -- it's espionage series and slick action parts in the United States that are giving Kapoor the chance to compete in, in his words, "the premier league."
We're talking Jack Bauer and Ethan Hunt. Kiefer Sutherland in "24" and Tom Cruise in "Mission: Impossible." These stars are his buddies now.
"I loved working on '24,' I made great friends," says Kapoor who had a significant role in Season 8 playing the fictional President Omar Hassan of the Islamic Republic of Kamistan -- a character who is willing to negotiate with the West and end his country's nuclear program.
"I liked the story, the idea, the role. I thought they'd bump me off in two episodes. But when we ended the 16th episode everyone was clapping and it was very emotional," he says.
Kapoor celebrates "Slumdog Millionaire" winning the Best Picture Academy Award. Perhaps it was his turn in "24" (which The Hollywood Reporter described as "excellent, Kapoor owns every scene he is in") that brought him to Tom Cruise and "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol," the fourth installment of the movie franchise. The series has earned around $1.5 billion at box offices worldwide, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"I was taken aback by Tom Cruise," Kapoor says of the actor he is often compared to in the context of Hindi cinema.
"He's one of the world's biggest stars and he's completely down to earth and humble. He's back doing action and he works till 3 a.m. It's phenomenal. He's a thorough professional."
"My scene was going on and he's there to give me the cues. Actors are supposed to conserve their energy. They're often selfish about their energies, but here's Tom giving his energy to my performance. He's thinking about the entire film and I think that's the hallmark of not only a great star and actor, but a person."
"I play an Indian in the film. They were shooting my character's residence and he wanted to be as correct as possible, he was sensitive that our culture should be represented correctly."
Holly v Bollywood
The commercial and creative collaboration between Hollywood and Bollywood has been in industry news for all of 2010. With his experience across both, Kapoor is well positioned to give us an overview.
"It's just the beginning I think," he says.
"The intent is there. So is a curiosity and a certain kind of apprehension about security, distances -- a fear of the unknown. 'Slumdog Millionaire' paved the way for more."
Since "Slumdog," Kapoor has become a sort of global brand ambassador for not only Bollywood but India and also, he says, Indian values.
"I've not been able to use what I have learned in Hollywood in India yet … but it's more my Indian-ness and values that I have taken there."
The real 'Slumdog Millionaire'?
We'll see Kapoor next on the fourth season of "Kaun Banega Crorepati" (KBC) with host Amitabh Bachchan, to promote his upcoming comedy movie "No Problem." That releases December 10, 2010 and has Kapoor acting and producing.
Kapoor stars in and produces the upcoming comedy "No Problem." "I had to rush from the <"Mission: Impossible"> set to the airport to be back in Mumbai in time because I was really looking forward to shooting with Amitabh Bachchan," Kapoor told newspapers, setting off a slew of sensationalist media reports claiming Kapoor stood up Cruise to be with Bachchan.
The KBC game show, of course, plays a major role in the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" so, "it's nostalgic to be back on the hot seat after two years," Kapoor tells me.
"The show helped me a lot during 'Slumdog.'"
But there's more to Kapoor's KBC connection and the emotional heart of "Slumdog Millionaire" than meets the eye.
"Anil Kapoor was born on Christmas Eve 1959 and grew up in a tenement in the Mumbai suburb of Chembur, with eight people living together in a single room," writes Mark Tutton in a CNN profile from 2009.
Kapoor has been a goodwill ambassador for Plan India, an organization that helps street children, since 2006 and way before British director Danny Boyle came on the scene. Kapoor donated his entire "Slumdog" fee to this cause.
"People did tell me, my friends, my publicist, that my life was going to change after the Oscars. Though I'm slightly cushioned and I have work here , basically I'm a gambler," Kapoor says.
"I'm ready to fail. I'm ready to make fun of myself."
"I'm a quick learner. Like Jamal , what I've learned is through experience, through reading. I love reading actor's biographies -- such as Charlie Chaplin, Michael Caine -- and my only ambition now is to not think about it and to just enjoy the journey."
"Actors are nomads. We move a lot and can adapt anywhere -- to food, weather, environments -- so long as we're acting. The only thing we cannot replace is family."
And perhaps hairstyles. But what's a well preserved coiffure to someone whose successful three-decade-old career has just gone seriously global?
So I ask.
"My friends they joke, they say it's my hair that has made me all I am today," Kapoor confesses.
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