Triangles have always been a popular theme in Indian cinema. But there' rarely been a star who has had to do so many films with the same theme in a row. Anil Kapoor is doing it. He did it in Judaai, and then he did it in Virasat. He's going to do it again in David Dhawan's Gharwali Baharwali. This time he's stuck with two wives even before he finds out that he's married a second time.

For some who regard this polygamous trend as a disturbing cine-phenomenon, Kapoor's response is "these are all male fantasies and films are about projecting fantasies on screen." Besides, Kapoor is at a point in his career when he can look confident being part of the scenery. The idea, according to him, is to get to "the soul of the role". It was how, he claims, he held his own without being swamped by Sridevi and Urmila Matondkar in Judaai. "I saw when A Man Loves A Woman and that gave me an understanding of the role," he says.

The fact that the man loves his wife to complete distraction, and will do everything in his power for her happiness, gave strength to his character of a man who marries a rich besotted woman, so that his wife can live in luxury. The film was successful, but it was Virasat that established him as an actor who has struck a careful balance between popular and critically acclaimed cinema. And it didn't happen without more than a fair share of unsuccessful run-ins with the audience.

He thinks for a long time before he says; "It was a long struggle and it didn't just happen. But it has finally happened." And audiences weren't the only ones hard to please. Over the 14 years that Kapoor has been a mainstream actor since Woh Saat Din, he's tried to traverse the two worlds of serious and popular cinema by combining the two. "They are different environments and different people," and he was catering to different tastes.

Eeshwar was a performance that every critic raved about, but it didn't set cash registers ringing at the box-office. Virasat, however, changed that and he hopes so will Pukaar. It's a Raj Kumar Santoshi film in which Anil Kapoor plays a Major in the Army. "The film's about terroism and Indo-Pakistani relations," he says. But even as Kapoor looks ahead to a future that promises to be rewarding as well as successful, his memories of the past always stay with him -"it never goes away."

It is also the reason why producing a film will never be a temptation for Anil Kapoor, unlike his father, Surender Kapoor, and his brother, Boney Kapoor."I had seen my father struggling and begging actors for dates, and I decided that I would always be an actor," he says. It also made him more professional. A trait he thinks he shares with other actors of his generation. He readily names Sunny Deol among them.

"Education makes a big difference," he says. What about the directors, surely they have had a role to play in creating an Anil Kapoor? He doesn't deny that working with priyadarshan, Subhash Ghai, Shekhar Kapur, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and N Chandra has helped make him famous. But he adds that "the directors I have worked with have become bigger."

He hopes he isn't being immodest when he says that he has contributed to creating biggest hits for these famous filmmakers. "I believe subhash Ghai's best film was Ram Lakhan, N. Chandra's was Tezaab, Shekhar Kapur's was Mr. India, and Priyadarshan's is Virasat."

But he's not without criticism for his own earlier films. "Parinda and 1942: A Love Story lacked in content," he avers. Just like that. Which is probably why they weren't blockbusters. His early life in a chawl in Chembur has also seen him through many of his tapori roles. He lived in a room with eight of his family and shared a bathroom with six flats in the chawl, and all that rubbed off on his persona somewhere. "It remains even today." And whatever defines that "it" - rusticity, common instincts - also brings spontaneity to his funnier roles. "And certain kind of magic comes with spontaneity." Another David Dhawan film, Deewana Mastana, hopes to combine that magic with Govinda's antics.

But even after 14 years with an average of about four films a year, Kapoor still lives to act. When he meets a Nepali lookalike in Kathmandu, he sees a tragic character who has spent his life dissembing not only to the world, but also to himself. "The actor in me keeps erupting." And it is the actor in the star that has kept him going. If Kapoor is looking younger now than he ever has, it's because Pukaar expects him to look like a young and "trim" major with short hair. "I can do anything for a role, but not for myself," he says.

For himself, he only has squash, his reading and his family.

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