The ‘nepo babies' who are making a mark on stage away from the paparazzi buzz

Hindustan Times

a day ago

MUMBAI: You'd be hard-pressed to find two young artists more steeped in the Bollywood showbiz tradition than Aditya Rawal and Zahan Kapoor. One is the son of veteran actor Paresh Rawal and actress and former Miss India Swaroop Sampat. The other is a scion of the first family of Bollywood, the son of actor-director Kunal Kapoor and grandson of Shashi Kapoor. In a more predictable version of this story, they would have followed the usual 'star kid' trajectory—carefully orchestrated paparazzi buzz, glowing magazine cover stories, followed by a big-budget launch vehicle. Mumbai, India - July 19, 2025: Zahan Kapoor & Aditya Rawal pose for the photos at Juhu in Mumbai, India, on Friday, July 18, 2025. (Photo by Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)
But these are not your typical nepo babies. Instead of chasing the limelight, they took a slower, off-beat path, honing their chops on the theatre circuit and working behind-the-scenes jobs in the film and ad industries before debuting on the big screen. They've both now acted in major film and streaming projects —'Faraaz', 'Aar Ya Paar', 'Black Warrant'— but the theatre stage remains their favourite proving ground, and one they keep returning to. So when we sat down for a chat over coffee at Juhu's Prithvi Theatre, ahead of a staging of their critically acclaimed co-production 'Siachen', I just had to ask. With names that could open all sorts of doors, why focus on theatre?
'The credit goes to our fathers, who have both kept their ties to theatre alive,' says Kapoor. 'So it wasn't really something unusual for us to continue. In fact, it would be more unusual for us to disconnect from it completely.'
Theatre is more than just an artistic choice, Kapoor adds. It's part of his inheritance. He practically grew up in the corridors of Prithvi Theatre, a Mumbai arts institution that his family has nurtured for generations. Over the past decade, he's worn almost every hat there—from logistics and administration to design, programming and marketing. 'I think that it has been the single most incredible opportunity for me to put myself in the shoes of so many aspects of this world,' he says. 'It's the main reason why I love theatre so much.'
Rawal too grew up with theatre as a big part of his life. As a child, he and his brother would hang out at his parents' rehearsals. Even the family's vacations would often be bundled along with his father's theatre tours. But his first love was football. He was captain of the Mumbai University Football team, and was selected for the Nationals camp twice. He picked up writing as something he did when he wasn't training.
'You have a lot of time to yourself. You're resting physically, but your mind is always at work,' he says. 'So, you're reading stuff, sometimes you're writing stuff. And then there arrived a fork in the road where I had to choose which one to do.'
Rawal chose writing, and hasn't looked back since. He studied dramatic writing at New York's Tisch School of Arts, and wrote for Ashutosh Gowariker's 2019 film 'Panipat', before making his acting debut a year later in Ranjan Chandel's 'Bumfaad'. 'I think acting also sort of came hand in hand,' he says. 'I've always seen them as complementary to each other. One doesn't really get in the way of the other.'
The two first met in 2019, when Kapoor made his theatre acting debut in Makrand Deshpande's 'Pitanjali Please'. Soon after, they were both cast in Hansal Mehta's 'Faraaz'. But what really got the ball rolling on their creative partnership was COVID-19. 'It was driven completely by convenience,' laughs Kapoor. 'We lived close by, so we could meet during the lockdowns. We both wanted to read, so we'd read together. And then one thing led to another and we told ourselves why not try this?'
'This' was 'Siachen', a survival drama about four Indian soldiers stuck on the Siachen glacier, the world's coldest and harshest battlefield. An avid reader of military history, Rawal had long been fascinated with the conflict over this inhospitable sheet of ice. 'It's one place, highly contested. Actually, nobody really wants it; but one prevents the other from having it,' he explains. 'There has been a ceasefire for the last 22 years. And still, we have to send our soldiers there.'
The sheer absurdity of this scenario—risking lives in a geopolitical one-upmanship—offered Rawal a great jumping off point to explore the tensions between notions of duty and belief, and the human will to survive. 'What interests me always is the absurdity of life,' he says. 'The contradictions of human nature. And I think they were presented in high contrast here. And with massive stakes.'
Rawal travelled to Ladakh, visiting the base camp and speaking with soldiers, officials and locals for research, before writing the first draft of the play. During their COVID lockdown reading sessions, he shared it with Kapoor, who jumped at the opportunity to help bring it to life.
'I loved the idea that it was first and foremost a story that was ours, based on our shared contemporary history,' says Kapoor. 'It has drama, character nuance and detail, as well as topical thematic ideas. So it was a no-brainer. We were also reading other writers' work at the time, thinking of how to adapt them. But then I said 'why bother adapting when you've got an original?''
They spent months working together on the script, passing ideas back and forth. Kapoor suggested that they change the language from English to Hindi—it was translated by Raghav Dutt—which Rawal credits with making the play feel much more authentic and accessible. 'Siachen' finally premiered at Prithvi Theatre in 2023, directed by theatre veteran Makrand Deshpande and featuring an ensemble cast including Kapoor, Niketan Sharma and Chittransh Pawar.
As first-time producers under their banner 72° East, the two found themselves balancing rehearsals with budgeting, logistics and last-minute problem-solving. The leadup to the opening run was so stressful that Rawal, who chose not to act in order to avoid being overwhelmed, would wake up in the middle of the night shouting about set safety or script changes.
'What helped us is the fact that growing up we got a window into the work that happens behind the scenes,' says Rawal. 'You realise that the show is just the culmination—there's a whole iceberg beneath the surface. That really informed our process.'
Through it all, their creative dynamic has remained rooted in mutual respect, aided by an easy camaraderie – they finish each other's sentences and gently rib each other. 'We did everything together, both on the creative end and the production end,' says Rawal. 'We understand there's a fluidity to the process, and we jump in wherever the other person cannot be.'
Since its 2023 premiere, 'Siachen' has toured across the country with over 35 shows across cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Goa, Surat and Ahmedabad. They've faced plenty of hiccups along the way—an actor dropping out weeks before the premiere, a key prop disappearing from storage last week—but they and their team have remained steadfast. 'They've been absolute troopers,' says Kapoor. 'Theatre demands so much soul from you, and our team has given it everything.'
That sense of collective ownership is central to the 72° East ethos. 'There's no monetary gain, and even the strategic gain is so notional,' says Kapoor. 'But they still put so much time and effort into it. That generosity of spirit—that's what theatre teaches you.'
The duo are already developing their next play, tentatively titled 'The Queen'. Set in a fictional 16th-century kingdom, it will tackle contemporary moral dilemmas through a historical lens. 'It's the story of a king and a queen and these big lofty worlds,' says Rawal. 'But if you boil it down to its essence, it's about the decisions that you and I also have to make in our lives. The form may vary—film, theatre, maybe even a novel—but our goal [with 72° East] remains the same. To tell stories that are relevant to our times.'