Veteran actor Pankaj Kapur, in a recent interview, lauded son Shahid Kapoor’s performance in Kabir Singh (2019) and also gave his opinion on the debate around toxic masculinity and how it has been portrayed in the film. Pankaj also stated that in the beginning of Shahid’s career, he was only getting boy-next-door roles, but Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider (2014) explored the actor’s potential as a serious performer. He told The Lallantop, “For a long time, I used to tell him and others that his main potential is drama and that nobody has tapped it. He was getting only sweet boy roles. It was tapped by Vishal Bhardwaj. These films have a big role in bringing forth the actor inside Shahid later. Shahid also became intelligent about which films to do and which to not do. He performed brilliantly in Haider, but he also performed wonderfully in Farzi.”

Praising Shahid’s performance in Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Kabir Singh, Pankaj said, “He has also done good work in Kabir Singh,” he said. When asked about the debate around Kabir Singh for glorifying toxic masculinity, he responded, “That is okay because it doesn’t mean that toxic masculinity doesn’t exist. It exists in society and because somebody made a film on it and we started objecting it. This is our own outlook.”

Pankaj Kapur is known for some noteworthy performances in films like Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983), Ek Doctor Ki Maut (1990) and Maqbool (2003). He has shared screen space with his son Shahid in Shaandaar (2015) and directed him in Mausam (2011).