EXCLUSIVE: Here's how Harshvardhan Kapoor prepared for his role in Mirzya

By Apoorva Nijhara

Updated on Sep 16, 2016 | 10:31 PM IST | 3.7M

Sonam Kapoor's younger brother Harshvardhan is all set to make his Bollywood debut with Mirzya. The youngest Kapoor bagged the titular role in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's period drama, wherein he essays the role of a warrior. Written by Gulzar, Mirzya is a contemporary take on the love story between the legend of Mirzya and Sahiban ( a popular folklore).

Harsh has been receiving a lot of hate comments that because of his dad and sister's foothold in the industry, he got the role. Well, then that's not the case! Just like any other newcomer, Harsh had to thrive hard for the role. In an interview with us, he opened up on how he prepared for the role in the film.

He said, "I’ve basically prepared for the film for 18 months before we started shooting. I signed the film in June 2013. There are two characters, one is contemporary Adil and one is period Mirzya. Adil is a Rajasthani stable boy. He’s the guy, who works for horses and he also plays Polo… that’s the physical part of it and Mirzya is the warrior and an archer. They both have to be visually different to look at and you can see that in the trailer. They both had to be emotionally pitched differently because Adil is more introvertish, intense and vulnerable and he speaks with his eyes. Mirzya is more flamboyant and charismatic and more of a man. Adil is still a boy, so it was a huge responsibility. I have never been on a horse actually and I had to get on to a level where I was at the level of an incredible rider. It’s a Rakyesh Mehra film, you’ve to basically be the best. I left my home and I moved to Delhi for six months, because in Mumbai there are no places for riding as such, except Mahalaxmi racecourse. Their timings are very strict and you’ve to be a member and all that."

He further added, "There was a stud-farm in Delhi and when I used to wake up in the morning, I used to go there for two hours and then the gym, and then come back in the evening again and ride for two hours. And I didn’t know how to ride, so I got a lot of cuts and bruises and you’ll see that in the making of the film. After six months of rejection and failure, I thought, will I be able to get to the point where I’m that phenomenal so that we can go and make that film. I came back after 6 months and I knew all the basics, but I was still pretty raw. After that, I continued in Mumbai for about another one and half month. After 8 months, Mehra and the action director Allan Amin came to see me ride and they said I was not even 30% of what they want. Then they found this teacher in Seattle called Katie, who is one of the best horse riders in the world. Action director Danny Baldwin suggested Katie. H. Cici and then I went there. She basically lives in a farm-house in Seattle and she lives on a ranch. She has 15 horses of her own and I was living with her. I would wake up in the morning and first used to clean the stable which includes taking a plastic bucket and shovel and cleaning all the horses’ shit and then cleaning their hooves and feeding them."

"The farm was also connected to the forestland, so you could take your horses into the wilderness and ride. Mehra sent me a list of 15 things to learn and I could only come back to India after learning all of them. We used to send him the weekly progress of my riding and that was the first time I combined archery and riding. I’m basically riding without my hands because I was shooting. If you are shooting with an archer, you have to let go and you’ll see that in the trailer too that I’m riding without my hands. I did that for a month and a half and then I came back to Mumbai completely exhausted. And then when all of it was achieved, we kept our ongoing look tests for the film for Adil and Mirzya. And by then I was a good Polo player," said the 25-year-old actor.

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