At age 67 and in his fourth decade in the business, Anil Kapoor continues to reinvent himself. The actor now trudges into fresh waters as the host of the third season of Bigg Boss OTT, which has been hosted by Salman Khan for many years now. Before the season goes live on June 21 on JioCinema Premium, the veteran actor chatted with t2.

What made you want to host Bigg Boss OTT?

This is something that I have never done before. For me, that always becomes very exciting... getting to do something for the first time. I played a game show host in Slumdog Millionaire (Kapoor’s Hollywood debut that won eight Academy Awards). You will be surprised to know that we actually shot those scenes in Slumdog Millionaire in a rather unscripted way.

Then I had the opportunity to work on a show (called Rennervations) for Disney International with Jeremy Renner. It was a completely unscripted reality show.

But hosting a show is a first for me. If you see the way I have gone about my life, my relationships as well as my career... I always trust my instincts and when the opportunities come, I grab them with both hands. I always ask myself: ‘Why are they coming to me? There must be something’. I feel very honoured and grateful that this job opportunity has come to me, so I want to do my best.

Being a host on Bigg Boss requires much more than just being a host. What is going to be your approach to hosting a show which is so unpredictable and has so many twists and turns?

As a show, Big Boss is very real. I am looking forward to meeting all the contestants and interacting with them. On the show, I know that there will be instances where the contestants’ behaviour will sometimes be disrespectful. But I will be firm as well as fair. We have to understand that they are human and flawed, like all of us are. They will make mistakes, especially in a high-pressure environment. I will hold them accountable but empathy and discipline will go hand in hand as far as I am concerned.

The Indian audience loves Bigg Boss. It is a very close version of the crazy phase of life everyone experiences. We are, through laughs and tears and everything in between, letting people feel a sense of excitement, entertainment and joy.

What do you think has accounted for the sustained popularity of Bigg Boss across almost two decades now?

There are some genius minds who have created ideas like Big Boss (Big Brother is the original franchise) and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? or for that matter, even these song-and-dance reality shows that are so popular across the world.

When television started, so many new things came in... whether it was stand-up comic shows or fictional drama. Seasons of TV shows started and then you had the reality shows that have so many hosts all over the world. Some of them became huge successes and continue to draw high viewership.

Then the same thing started in India and it became successful because the human psyche is the same all over the globe. There is something inherently in it which makes it very successful... the content is very powerful.

The team behind it is very important. The success of every season depends on how good the participants are. It is also important to see what platform a show is on and whether it is being marketed and promoted well. Bigg Boss OTT 3 is going to stream on JioCinema Premium, which is a prolific platform with international content, shows and films in local languages as well as wholesome kids and family entertainment. It has as many as 105 Originals, blockbuster movies, exclusives, before-TV premieres and live channels.

Bigg Boss OTT is going to stream 24x7. All the viewers of Bigg Boss are very loyal fans and they get to watch it all the time, whenever they want.

If the roles were to be reversed, do you think you have the temperament to be on the show as a contestant?

I feel that I have gone through a lot in life that has shown that I have the tenacity to be in every kind of situation. I started out as a background dancer and from there, I graduated to doing films in which the leading man had 10-12 friends and I was one of them. I did a Telugu film (Vamsa Vruksham) followed by a Kannada film (Pallavi Anu Pallavi).

After that, I went to Calcutta and shot the film called Kahan Kahan Se Guzar Gaya. I stayed in a guest house which was just across the Ballygunge station. There were a lot of power cuts where I lived, there was no AC in that room. I would put water on the floor so that it would get a little cooler and I could get some sleep. I have gone through all that in my life and I have always had the temperament to work hard, to never take things for granted.

The tagline of Bigg Boss this season is ‘kuch logic kuch magic’. How would this line describe the extremely eclectic and highly successful career you have had so far?

It definitely has been a mix of logic and magic. The ‘logic’ bit definitely includes the hard work, being consistent... you have to be professional, you have to be committed and you have to keep improving your craft.

The ‘magic’ is the luck factor, which determines what projects come to you and what kind of people you get to work with. The magic is created by the blessings of God. My career has definitely been a good mix of magic and logic. More logic and less magic, maybe (laughs).

You brought the thriller drama 24 to India with its Hindi adaptation in 2013, a few years before the streaming boom happened, and gave Indian television high-production values, slick action and the concept of seasons. It was a clutter-breaker in its time but do you sometimes wish you had done the show now?

I had such a great experience working in the eighth season of the original 24 (frontlined by Kiefer Sutherland). I simply loved the script and I found it to be better than many film scripts. I got really inspired.

When I came back to India and tuned into the TV scene at that time here, I realised that our viewers weren’t used to the concept of seasons, the kind of storytelling that 24 had was very new to them. Nobody was used to having writers... everybody wanted to become a director. I had to do a lot of convincing and get 24 to India in the form of its Hindi adaptation. I am glad I did something more than 10 years ago which was a clutter-breaker and is still remembered.

It has been a great few years for you with roles which have had meat and meaning. There have been box-office winners as well as critically-acclaimed work. How would you look at this phase of your career?

To be honest, I never look back, I only look ahead. I am always trying to focus on the present. I have never really analysed what worked for me in the first decade of my career, the second decade, the third decade and now the fourth decade. I am happy with where I am now. I am focusing on the present, which is the Bigg Boss show and looking ahead to the future. I am not one of those who sits and analyses.

Coming back to Bigg Boss, if you could spend some time on the show with three people from the film industry, who don’t belong to your family, who would you pick?

I would take Kapil Sharma, Karan Johar and Salman Khan. Lots of entertainment and laughs guaranteed! (Laughs)