Indian actor, director and producer known for his work in Hindi Cinema, Rishi Kapoor, started his journey to eternity in a hospital in Mumbai at the age of 67 on Thursday. He was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer in 2018 and was being treated in New York. After a successful treatment, he had returned to India on 26 September 2019.
Kapoor was famously fond of life and should be remembered with a smile and not with tears. However, this has come as a second loss to the film fraternity as the legendary Irrfan Khan was claimed by cancer a day ago. Kapoor was admitted to Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital in Mumbai on 29th of April, 2020 after he affirmed a difficulty in breathing.
Rishi Kapoor had begun his career with roles in his father Raj Kapoor’s films. His first ever role in a movie was for Raj Kapoor’s Shree 420, when he was just 3 years of age. In 1970, he debuted playing the childhood role of his father in Raj Kapoor’s 1970 film Mera Naam Joker.
Later he had his first lead role as an adult in the 1973 film Bobby, which proved to be one of the decade’s biggest hits in India. In an interview in 2012, Kapoor reportedly stated, “There was a misconception that the film (Bobby) was made to launch me as an actor. The film was actually made to pay the debts of Mera Naam Joker. Dad wanted to make a teenage love story and he did not have money to cast Rajesh Khanna in the film.”
Rishi Kapoor got 51 films as the solo lead hero from 1973 to 2000, eleven of which: Bobby , Laila Majnu, Rafoo Chakkar , Sargam, Karz, Prem Rog, Nagina, Honeymoon, Chandni, Henna, Bol Radha Bol, and Yeh Vaada Raha, managed to be big hits in India.
It was only in 1999 that he for the first time directed a film, which was called Aa Ab Laut Chalen, starring Rajesh Khanna, Aishwarya Rai and Akshaye Khanna in the lead roles. Later, he turned to several supporting roles in the 2000s. In 2010, he reunited on-screen with his 15-time co-star and wife Neetu Singh in the film Do Dooni Chaar. He reunited on-screen with Amitabh Bachchan after 27 years in the 2018 film 102 Not Out, a comedy-drama film directed by Umesh Shukla that received mixed reviews. The film was based on a Gujrati play of the same title, written by Saumya Joshi.
A Kapoor’s autobiography called the Khullam Khulla: Rishi Kapoor Uncensored, was released on 15 January 2017. Kapoor had written the book along with Meena Iyer, and the title was published under Harper Collins. He was meant to star in an Indian remake of the Warner Bros. comedy drama “The Intern” with Deepika Padukone. However, he is now survived by his wife
Neetu Kapoor, daughter Riddhima and son Ranbir Kapoor. Having delighted us all through his career spanning about 49 years, he will continue to be a part of our lives through his creative and very versatile works.
