Ranbir Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor Khan’s cousin, Zahan Kapoor, the grandson of the late legendary actor Shashi Kapoor, won hearts with his powerful portrayal of jailer Sunil Kumar Gupta in Vikramaditya Motwane’s Netflix series Black Warrant. Recently, he opened up about nepotism, calling it an ‘undeserving’ advantage, stating that he never took his surname for granted.
Zahan shared, “What does nepotism mean? It’s an undeserving, a non-meritorial advantage that someone gets given because of some personal equation. Right? That’s what it is.” Further, speaking to Filmfare, he stated that regardless of nepotism, he was always told never to take for granted the idea that nobody—”daddy’s not gonna pick up the phone and get him a job.”
Zahan stated that, in fact, the ‘Kapoor’ name and its baggage scared him so much that he felt that if a door opened for him and he did not make the most of the opportunity—if he was not ready, not prepared, or lacked the wherewithal to stand on his own feet and confidently walk into that room—then he would be the biggest loser. “Matlab laanat hai mujhpe,” added Kapoor.
“Why shouldn’t I take complete advantage and also complete kind of preparation? So for me, that is my outlook. And it’s not been like there’s been handouts at all. So I have managed to kind of, like I said, it’s taken, you think that it’s easy, you have a name. It took me 12 years,” said Zahan.
On the work front, Zahan made his acting debut with the 2022 film Faraaz, which was based on the 2016 terrorist attack at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
