Imran Khan on comparisons with Ranbir Kapoor: Always left an unpleasant aftertaste
File image of Ranbir Kapoor and Imran Khan
Imran Khan and Ranbir Kapoor were hailed as the next big thing in Bollywood when they made their debut in Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na and Saawariya respectively around the same time.
The two also appeared in the talk show Koffee with Karan and hosted award ceremonies together and were often compared to each other.
Years on, the two actor's career trajectories are different and Imran has now opened up about the intense scrutiny of the media that pitted them against each other.
In an interview with India Today, Imran said, “It’s unfortunate that it would always leave a very unpleasant aftertaste because that’s not how I viewed it and from my conversations with Ranbir back then, he never got into that thing either.”
He further continued, “My recollection of him is that he took the craft very seriously. He is a cinephile. And he was also not engaging in that thing. This is the spicy stuff that they like to talk about in the gossip magazines so it leaves an unpleasant aftertaste but if neither of us are buying into it, then it doesn’t come into that part. I recall here and there a couple of particularly ugly things would come out and we would always make it a point to kind of reach out and say ‘Listen, aisa aisa hua hai [this has happened], are we cool?"
In a career spanning nearly two decades, Ranbir has created a niche for himself in the film industry and delivered several blockbuster hits. Imran's career took off with hit films but the actor's film slowly started failing at the box office. The actor has not appeared in any film for over 9 years.
Earlier this month, Imran had clarified that his reason for saying no to an espionage series is being misconstrued as critique for Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Animal.
The Sandeep Reddy Vanga film was a crime-action drama and was the highest-grossing Hindi movie of 2023.However, it was labelled as misogynistic and brutally violent by a section of viewers and critics.Imran was last seen in the 2015 film Katti Batti that co-starred Kangana Ranaut.