The legendary actor breathed his last in a Mumbai hospital yesterday, after battling leukemia for two years
Madhureeta Mukherjee and Renuka Vyavahare (BOMBAY TIMES; May 1, 2020)

Rishi Kapoor was the ultimate loverboy of the 70s and 80s, with his good looks, incredible charm, superb talent, and of course, the enviable touch of the mighty Kapoor lineage. And those traits never lost colour, even to the last day.

In the last decade, we witnessed a new avatar of the actor — Rishi Kapoor reloaded. He was basking in a variety of roles like we’d never seen him in before. The actor, with his trademark candour, had said, “The first 25 years, I was only singing songs and serenading the heroine; enough of playing a loverboy. The roles that I am doing currently are challenging and tough, but that’s the beauty of it, as I have never done this in my life. I feel like I am internally and externally all charged up.”

And we were all charged up, too, to see more of that brilliance on screen, after he returned from New York, where he underwent treatment for leukemia for a year, but life had other plans. After a tough two-year battle, Rishi Kapoor breathed his last yesterday, in Mumbai.

‘Son of a famous father, father of a famous son’, Rishi Kapoor’s previous Twitter bio was testament to his candour and wit. Fearless and brutally honest, he didn’t hold back from expressing what he truly believed in. For those who didn’t understand, he explained, “I am honest and blunt, and I believe that a fact is a fact. If something has to be said, I will go ahead and say it.” For the rest, they knew he was all heart, and they loved him for it.

In his last interview with Bombay Times, in July 2019, where he spoke from New York, he got emotional as he reflected on his life and said, “God has taught me that patience is the mother of all virtues. Life teaches you to slow down sometimes. In 45 years of my film career, I have never taken such a long break. It makes me think that sometimes, God takes the decisions for you that you don’t. God has been kind. Forget about me, it has been really tough for Neetu. Times like these remind you what human values are. I received tremendous support from those close to me. In the time of crisis when they come to your aid, you realise what relationships truly mean.”

Back then, the powerhouse performer was looking forward to returning in front of the camera as soon as he could. “I have never stayed away from the camera for such a long time in my life. This has never happened in the last 45 years, except for the time that I directed Aa Ab Laut Chalen (1999), which was also shot in New York. You want to go back to your home, your bed, your home-cooked meal and workplace. I can’t wait to face the camera again; I hope I haven’t lost my touch. I hope I am still an actor,” he expressed. You’ll always be an actor, Rishi Kapoor. And one of our finest at that. Months after he returned from NY, he did go back on set, however, briefly. His last film released was The Body (2019) and he almost completed shooting for Sharmaji Namkeen, a film which marked his reunion with Juhi Chawla after a decade.

Rishi Kapoor was cremated in Mumbai around 4 pm yesterday. Only family and close friends could attend it due to the nationwide lockdown. While Neetu and son Ranbir along with Alia Bhatt, Kunal Kapoor, Anil Ambani and Abhishek Bachchan were present, Rishi’s daughter Riddhima wasn’t able to reach in time for the final rites, but she will be in Mumbai soon.

Titas Chowdhury (HINDUSTAN TIMES; December 21, 2019)

Veteran actors Rishi Kapoor and Satish Kaushik’s friendship dates back many summers. Four years after Wedding Pullav (2015), the duo is all set to share the screen space in Honey Trehan and Abhishek Chaubey’s production venture, where they play best friends. Kaushik reveals that Kapoor has been a loving friend. “I’ve known Chintu ji as a very straightforward person. He isn’t pretentious. He says what he feels. With me, he has always been very loving. Spending evenings with him sometimes, over drinks, is a treat and his sense of humour is amazing. He’s an absolute cinema person, much like his father, who has devoted his life to films for four decades which is incredible,” he says.

Kaushik was part of Kapoor’s directorial debut, Aa Ab Laut Chalen (1999). Talking about it, Kaushik says, “We had a ball shooting for the film in New York (USA) because Kapoors are people with king-sized hearts. Chintu ji is a cool, happy-go-lucky person, who spreads positive vibes. He really took care of his actors. To work under him was like a dream come true. But I remember him being very strict on the sets, even with Ranbir Kapoor, who was a clapper boy in the film.”

He takes us back to the time when he watched Bobby (1973) on the big screen. “I was in college when I went to watch Bobby in Delhi’s Amba Cinema. I wanted to see this good-looking and romantic star who had become a rage with his very first film,” he shares.

Kaushik says he’s glad that Kapoor has “managed to bounce back to work” after undergoing treatment for cancer in New York. He elaborates, “I never visited him there. Sometimes, in certain situations, it is better to just pray for the happiness and well-being of your loved ones when they’re in a problem and that’s what I did. He’s a fighter, and I’m happy that he’s out of all the trouble now.”

KRISHNA RAJ KAPOOR (1931 - 2018)

Krishna Raj Kapoor was a model star wife for whom the hearth and home mattered above all
Khalid Mohamed (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 2, 2018) 

She was married to a showman, but any kind of attention embarrassed her. She was particularly adept at deflecting conversations that harked back to the good and bad old days. Instead, she’d want to know how you’d been doing, why you’d lost weight, and whether you had managed to make another trip to the Nantes film festival in France.

Krishna Raj Kapoor, who passed away following a cardiac arrest at the age of 87 on Monday morning, followed the cardinal rule of speaking only when spoken to. She was aware she could be glorified as a woman of forbearance. She was aware she could be extolled as a woman who remained rock firm against a shoal of calumnies. She didn’t need that. Her silence spoke volumes.

The only time I heard her murmur a sentence of regret, was when she couldn’t retrieve the hundreds of stills clicked by a photographer assigned to cover the studio shoots of the R.K. banner films. “Pata nahin,” she had smiled wanly, “he doesn’t wish to part with them or even make copies.”

Her eyes, though, would disclose a certain tenderness, touched by a hint of melancholia. Her self-discipline in serving as a binding force to India’s greatest showman, Raj Kapoor, must have taken a toll. If he exuded flamboyance, she radiated restraint. You could call it a classic case of opposites attract -- and despite hiccups -- be together till the last breath.


Indeed, she became a role model for film star wives, inwardly conscious that it’s ultimately the hearth and home which matter. Subservient she could never be. She was an equal and at points, even the superior one, a status which can now be accorded to her unflinchingly. During her lifetime, she would have been offended by any form of panegyric.

The story of the Rewa born girl is the stuff that love stories are made of. At the age of 16, the daughter of police inspector general Raisaheb Kartar Nath Malhotra, married the upcoming actor Raj Kapoor who was 22 then. The blue-eyed dreamer had seen her play a tanpura on visiting the home of her brother actor Premnath.

Inspector general Malhotra was the maternal cousin of R.K.’s father Prithviraj Kapoor. So, they were distantly related. What is colloquially known as ‘an arranged love marriage’ was fixed. Rewinding to the wedding ceremony, the late thespian Ashok Kumar, would often chuckle, “Krishna peeked at me from under her ghunghat and told Raj, ‘Oh he’s so handsome!’ He didn’t quite like that and must have sworn that he would become much more famous than me. Which he did.”


Accustomed to a large family – she had 11 siblings including Rajendra Nath and Narendra Nath who went on to become actors – the bride segued into the patriarchal Prithviraj Kapoor family which had anchored itself in a Matunga neighbourhood.

Raj Kapoor’s career was on the ascent, simultaneously as an actor, producer and director. Her family helped him with a financial loan to build the R.K. Studio in Chembur. “Dad and my grandfather weren’t flush with money those days,” son Rishi Kapoor has recalled, adding, “Relatively, my mother’s family was well-off.”

Raj Kapoor’s spiralling popularity was accompanied by his legendary romance with Nargis. The passion play between the creator and his muse was no secret. The on-screen chemistry, evidenced notably in Barsaat, Awara and Shree 420, was so palpable that the pair became socially acceptable off-screen even in the corsetted 1950s.

Krishna Raj Kapoor didn’t recoil or threaten the showman with ultimatums. Mother to five children — Randhir, Ritu, Rishi, Rajiv and Rima — her winning card was tolerance.


Tolerance, in such a context, may sound regressive. For a mother, however, tolerance was the unalloyed strength and priority. Within and outside the film industry, polygamy was rampant. Suffice it to say she had to withstand it, an option which is exercised to this day and millennium by Bollywood’s first wives’ club — till it comes to a breaking point.

Raj Kapoor and Nargis parted ways without any demands on the wife’s part. The actress left the banner on her own volition to act in Mehboob Khan’s Mother India. Presumably, the showman was becoming far too possessive, she wanted to strike out.

The breaking point for Krishna Raj Kapoor came with the Raj Kapoor-Vyjayanthimala affair in the course of filming on the overseas locations for Sangam. Whispers about the liaison reached a crescendo point. With her children, Krishna moved out of the R.K. Cottage in Chembur to a suite at the then-Natraj Hotel on Marine Drive. No acrimonious statements, no arguments. Enough was enough.

Inevitably, the Vyjayanthimala chapter came to an end. The R.K children were back where they belonged: home. Other R.K. heroines, Padmini and Zeenat Aman, were linked with Raj Kapoor, transiently. It was the wife who became the irreplaceable Lady in White, an imagery associated with the showman who often showcased his heroines in spotless white costumes.

Krishna Raj Kapoor’s style was timelessly elegant. She would be seen most often in understated embroidered white and pastel shaded organza, chiffon and georgette ensembles. A string of pearls would be supplemented on festive occasions with diamonds. Right till advanced age prevented hours-long, traffic-clogged car rides, she would travel from Chembur to Kemp’s Corner in South Mumbai to get her hair coiffed by Ray George Stevenson of the six-decades-old Raechelle salon.


She allowed herself a few pleasures, like hosting a game of cards regularly at the R.K. Cottage. Her circle of friends included her sister Uma Chopra (wife of Prem Chopra), Shukla Kumar (wife of Rajendra Kumar), Salma Khan (wife of Salim Khan), Nirmal Kapoor (mother of Anil Kapoor) and Munni Dhawan.

Unlike quite a few star wives she didn’t interfere with R.K.’s creative process, keeping out of story, music and edit sessions, but ensuring that the bar and kitchen were kept open for the filmmaker’s collaborators around the clock.

Above all, the paramount joy in her life was to see her sons and grandchildren evolve in their careers. For instance, she had jetted off to Lake Placid in the U.S. to wait every evening for Rishi Kapoor to return to the unit hotel from the shoot of Aa Ab Laut Chalen. She’d ask, “Hope it all went off smoothly?” and if the first-time director wouldn’t answer, she’d say calmly, “Don’t worry, tomorrow all will go well.” This, in fact, was her credo.

Grandchildren Ranbir and Riddhima adored her. Although she had to travel in a wheelchair, she was at the centre of the celebrations of Neetu Singh Kapoor’s 60th birthday in Paris earlier this year.

You can detect the same look in the eyes, be it in the photographs of her as a young woman, as a resilient widow when Raj Kapoor passed away 30 years ago, or as a loving grandmother on Instagram.

The movies, star wives, relationships and tolerance levels have kept altering dramatically over time. That look of tenderness — with a hint of melancholia — in Krishna Raj Kapoor’s eyes never did.

Asserting that his love for his craft is enough, Rishi Kapoor says he will "never" explore direction again
Shaheen Parkar (MID-DAY; May 6, 2018)

Rishi Kapoor is not one to evade questions, but he does tire of repetition. "How many times can I answer the same questions over and over again? It's either about the role or the film? Ask me kuch alag." So we ask him "kuch alag". We ask him to reflect on his past ventures, like, maybe, Ranbhoomi (1991), also starring Jeetendra and Shatrughan Sinha. "Why are you reminding me about it," he groans. "It was an awful film, which is better forgotten. Ask me something else."

Seated with the veteran at a Juhu hotel, we're instantly reminded about how this place was once the hotspot for stars, including him. "Yes it was, years ago. This was the happening place. Today, every memory of my life is at least 30 to 40 years old. This generation refers to me as Ranbir Kapoor's father. That's fine. I live in the present. I'm not one to keep saying, 'Hamara bhi zamaana tha.' You must move on with the time."

Moving on in his career, however, has landed Rishi Kapoor back in time. His recent venture, 102 Not Out, sees him collaborate with an artiste he shared screen space with 27 years ago. "Amit ji [Amitabh Bachchan] has played my step father-in-law, brother and buddy. Now, I am playing his son. I have been working with him for 44 years. It is not that I haven't met him throughout these years. We catch up at social gatherings. He is a challenging and delightful actor. I consider myself a student of cinema, so I continously learn from him."

Even though their collaboration has given the industry masterpieces like Kabhi Kabhie (1976), Naseeb (1981) and Coolie (1983), among others, Kapoor singles out Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) as a film that's special. "People tell me today that [even] children love watching it. It is a timeless film, it is like watching Charlie Chaplin. You can watch it over and over again."


Amitabh Bachchan has previously been seen as his brother in Amar Akbar Anthony

Kapoor not only gives credit to audiences' sensibilities when appreciating the films the like, but also points out that they are too evolved to accept poor content offered to them by filmmakers. "In the past, every film had the underlying lost-and-found theme. Every actor had at least four films that followed the 'bachpan mein bichad gaye' theme, and those films worked. At that time, the audience was forgiving. Today they will not accept anything. There is so much exposure," he says, pointing towards the inevitable competition they face from Hollywood. "Viewers want chic films, interesting stories, the best popcorn and top amenities at the multiplex. Their demand is justified, given that they shell out Rs 400 for a ticket."

While the veteran loves to entertain those turning up at cinema halls with his acting prowess, he says they will "never" be witness to his abilities as director again. After wielding the directorial baton in 1991 for Akshaye Khanna and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan starrer Aa Ab Laut Chalen, he confesses he'd rather "leave the stress" on set when working on a film. "An actor is a king. People will do salaam to you when you enter and exit the set. Directors or producers have to endure many hassles. I don't want to go through the stress of acquiring great box office collections. I am 65 and have been working for over four decades. Why would I take on something more challenging than I can handle?"

Acting he says, is his passion, even if he never permitted his parents to notice how excited he was when he first harboured the thought of being an actor. When his father, the late Raj Kapoor casually spoke about including a young Rishi in his project, he was thrilled. "I ran into my room, took a sheet and started practising signing autographs. Cinema has his own charm. Movies are magical."

It's probably this admiration that he has for the industry that keeps him going. Even at 65, he has his hands full with his projects. He recently wrapped up Anubhav Sinha's Mulk, and Leena Yadav's Rajma Chawal, and will soon kickstart work on Malayalam director Jeetu Joseph's Bollywood debut. He is also invested in the stage play based on his autobiography, Khullam Khulla.

"I have done shows in Dubai, Hong Kong, Bahrain and London. Most of the audience comprises people who are above 45 years of age, that's a lot that has grown up watching my films, ones who know me." But Kapoor's is a name known across age groups. The young folk on Twitter know him as the man who can't stop ranting. The actor has mastered the art of tackling trolls. "I keep taking panga on social media," he smirks, adding, "But, what I tweet is straight from the heart."

When trolls messed with Rishi
> In 2017, trolls suggested that "primary education" be made mandatory in nepotistic Bollywood when Kapoor inadvertently shared a math troll meme that read: "If you add your age to your birth year, you will arrive at 2017. This happens once in 1000 years."

> Throwing up names like Jack Daniel and Black Label, twitterverse questioned the actor what liquor was he consuming when he joked about wanting a repeat of former Indian Cricket captain Saurav Ganguly's shirtless celebration at the Women's World Cup final last year.

> Kapoor irked fans of Twinkle Khanna when he wished her on her birthday while reminding her that she was in her "mums tummy when I was serenading her in Bobby "Aksar koi Ladka" In 1973 (sic)."