After Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor is the latest Indian actor to be immortalised through a wax figurine at Madame Tussauds. While the plan was locked around two months ago, he announced the news only earlier this week. The Padmaavat star talks about joining this exclusive club that includes Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Varun Dhawan, Kajol, Madhuri Dixit-Nene, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Katrina Kaif.
It was pretty simple. The museum authorities connected with me and said they wanted to make my statue. I met them and they spent four hours taking various measurements. It was a detailed process and required a lot of time as well as patience. I was more than happy to comply because it’s a huge compliment to have your own Madame Tussauds statue. Now, I’m eagerly waiting to see how it turns out.
They had a lot of ideas and I was okay with most of the things that they wanted. So, everything went pretty smoothly.
I was thankful that someone wants to showcase me for eternity. I guess from their point of view, I must have done something substantial to consider me in this capacity. It made me feel good about myself.
I didn’t inform anyone in my family except Mira. When I posted the picture, everyone was like, ‘You didn’t tell us about it ’ (laughs). The team didn’t want me to talk about it for some time, so I was waiting for them to give me a go ahead. It happened around two months ago. Now that my mom knows, she is really happy.
She was extremely happy and wanted to know more about the process. So, when they were taking my measurements, I was on FaceTime with her. They had 50 shades of eyeballs and hair. They laid them out to check which one was closest to mine. Mira was curious to know, so I was showing her how they put 150 dots on my face, made me stand still and took pictures with 2D as well as 3D cameras. She was quite fascinated.
They sent options for the pose that I could go for. Mira took the final call on that.
It takes our cinema to an international level as it’s a global platform. It helps you connect with people that you probably wouldn’t reach out to, in any other way. I feel blessed to be a part of it. And of course, most dignitaries whose figurines are there at the museum are those whom we have grown up watching and idolising. For me to be featured among them because somebody thinks of me in a similar way is a huge compliment.
If I’m placed next to somebody, it will definitely be someone who’s way more accomplished than me. So I’d just ask them to give me a corner of my own (smiles). Honestly, I’d like to be featured with people who are from my generation because I think that would be appropriate. Varun is the closest, so maybe they should put us together somewhere. I think our statues should be high-fiving each other (laughs).