Anil Kapoor talks about making more moolah than superstars but never bragging about it, reports Shilpa Jamkhandikar

Remember the quiet unassuming kid in your school? The one who sat in a corner, always figured in the first three rankers in class and the one who you discovered years later was the head of some high flying investment firm, earning a tidy sum?

Well, Anil Kapoor is that unassuming kid in the vast classroom that is Bollywood. The lambi race ka ghoda, who never faltered and is still in the running when most of his contemporaries have fallen behind.

“So many people say I have never achieved superstardom, but what I have achieved is so much beyond that. The only problem is that I have never flaunted it. I have never bragged about how much money I earn, when the fact is that I earn more than all of today’s heroes.  I have given many more blockbusters than many  heroes and with much greater consistency,” he said

Does he regret not flaunting it then? “No, I don’t, because I firmly believe that it is the secret of my longevity.  If I had talked about my success, flaunted it or spoken about how much money I earn, perhaps I wouldn’t have lasted for so long. Rather than flamboyance, I prefer consistency. I have let my work do the talking,” he smiles.

Sitting in his tastefully decorated office in suburban Juhu, Kapoor is clearly at ease with himself.

“I have seen so much in life, so many ups and downs and God has given more than I had ever imagined.  I remember when I first started out, I used to do the rounds of Subhash Ghai’s office, hoping that he would give me a chance, but to no avail. I asked friends to use their influence with him, asked his staff to get me an appointment with him because I wanted to work with him so much.  That was a struggle,” he recalled.

And now, almost two decades after he signed Ghai’s Meri Jung, the association is still going strong. “I am now doing his Black and White, which I think is one of the most powerful roles that I have played. And yet, whenever Subhashji comes to me with a role, the first thing I ask him is “Why me?”, and he is always able to give me a convincing answer. That is the strength of our rapport together.”