“I am so middle class”: Despite being a highly successful and critically acclaimed director, Shekhar Kapur, the maker of Bandit Queen and Mr India, said he continues to “carry the burden of being middle class.”
In a lengthy LinkedIn post, Kapur shared a heartfelt anecdote involving his father about his 1998 movie Elizabeth, which was nominated for 8 Oscars. It was his first movie in the West.
Kapur said he told his father about the Oscar nominations over the phone and shared that Elizabeth was also “selected as one of the 5 best films in the world (those days, only 5, not 10, were nominated)”.
He shared that although his father was “proud” of him, his main concern remained whether his son would finally be able to get a stable job.
He said his father was “always against” him entering the film business and had asked what the Oscar nomination meant for his career. “Does that mean you might get another job?” his father asked.
Kapur said, “The middle class values that were thrust on us, were once held in very high esteem, but became the burden you carry in the new world.”
He added that middle-class values such as not being in debt, holding onto a stable job, and building a pension that left startups “out of the window” for him.
Highlighting his “fight” against the unsaid burden of belonging to the middle class, Shekhar Kapur said his rebellions helped him develop his creativity.
“But then being middle class really helped me. I found something to rebel strongly against. For creativity is born of rebellion .. and my life is a series of rebellions .. against being middle class,” he wrote.
