Recently, in a conversation at Nikhil Kamath’s show People by WTF, Ranbir Kapoor opened up about his past love life and how it affected his character. The Animal actor admitted that he dated two very successful actresses.

“Of course, I dated two very successful actresses that just became my identity… that ‘he is a casanova.’ I was labelled (a) cheater for a very large part of my life and still, I am.”

The actor also talked about his relationship with his father Rishi Kapoor. He said, “My father was a short-tempered man, but a very good man. I never saw the colour of his eyes. I was always like this (bows his head). I never said ‘no’.”

Ranbir admitted that he doesn’t express himself, nor does he cry easily. “I’ve tried therapy,” he said, adding, “It’s not that I’m against therapy, it’s just that I have to open myself up. And I’m very scared of opening myself up.”

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Heartthrob, chocolate boy — actor Ranbir Kapoor is often described with many affectionate labels by his fans. However, some tags have stuck with him over the years. In the trailer of a podcast with businessman Nikhil Kamath, Kapoor shared, “I have dated two very successful actresses in the past, which became my identity... I got the tag of being a casanova and a cheater. I have lived with the label of being a cheater for a very large part of my life. I am still living with it.”

Although the 41-year-old did not name the actors, fans quickly speculated that he was referring to Deepika Padukone and Katrina Kaif. He is now married to actor Alia Bhatt, and has a daughter, Raha.

Kapoor was in a relationship with Padukone (who is now married to actor Ranveer Singh) from 2007 to 2009. He then dated Kaif. Sparks flew on the set of their film Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (2009) and they reportedly parted ways in 2016. Kaif married actor Vicky Kaushal in 2021.

Meanwhile, he also spoke about his close bond with Raha, who is always in his arms when the couple steps out: “It is like someone has taken your heart out and put it in your hand. Raha considers Alia a part of her and she looks at me for masti and fun.”

Nikhil Kamath and Manushi Chhillar at Rishikesh

Former model, beauty pageant winner and actor, Manushi Chhillar, isn’t single. We have exclusively learnt that Chhillar, 25, is dating businessman Nikhil Kamath, 35. From what we have gathered, the two have been seeing each other since 2021.

The lovebirds, who have kept their affair under wraps, often go on trips together — Rishikesh (Uttarakhand) being their most recent one.

A source close to the two shares, “The two have been going quite strong. They have even moved in together. Currently, Manushi is focused on her Bollywood career, thus she doesn’t wish to talk about her love life as it might take away the attention. Their friends and family are well versed with each other and the two wish to keep it low-key.”

Kamath, the co-founder of Zerodha, had an intimate wedding with entrepreneur Amanda Puravankara on April 18, 2019, in Florence, Italy. But within a year, the couple separated.

From what we have learnt, the two are divorced since last year.

Chhillar, on the other hand, has been in the limelight since 2017. However, not once have reports of her dating someone made headlines. She made her Bollywood debut earlier this year with the Akshay Kumar-starrer Samrat Prithviraj, where she played Sanyogita.

Despite repeated attempts, Chhillar and her team didn’t respond to our query. Meanwhile, Kamath’s team refused to comment on the matter.

As Anubhav Sinha’s 2001 offering Tum Bin clocks 20 years this month, one half of composer duo Nikhil-Vinay say the revered 12-track album of the film was among the defining ones of their career. The recipe for crafting a sore that appealed to the younger generation, they say, was to employ electronic music, and stray from employing too many Indian tunes. 

“We knew the songs couldn’t sound very traditional. If you listen to the tracks, you’ll notice that they don’t have the tabla or dholak. They have a groove. In fact, even if we used Indian music, the rhythm was westernized,” says Nikhil Kamath.

The only exception that they made to the pattern was for the track Koi Fariyaad, which needed to carry the weight of what the protagonist was enduring. “It was based on Priyanshu Chatterjee’s character. He had killed a man, and was now in love with his lover. The situations were challenging. So we needed a song, and a voice like that of Jagjit Singh, to do justice to it,” he says, adding that Meri duniya, and Chhoti chhoti ratein were among the hardest numbers to crack.

On the plate for the duo are songs with artistes like Reshmi Kumar, Tori Dattaroy, and Imran Belim. “We will also start working on Margaon: The Closed File, a mystery web series starring Suchitra Krishnamurthy, and Zeenat Aman.” A collaboration with the lyricist of Tum Bin, Faaiz Anwar, who has penned tracks like Aaoge Jab Tum from Jab We Met, is also on the cards.

Lata Mangeshkar in a recent interview to Mirror had admitted that playback singing had taken a backseat in her seven decade career. “Today's music is very different from that of our zamana, it's more about beats," she had pointed out, adding that she is open to good offers.
Well, last Monday, the Nightingale recorded a song for the sequel of Kapil Sharma's queer love story Dunno Y... Na Jaane Kyun at her own studio in Mhada.

Nikhil Kamath, the composer of the song, Jeena kya hai, jaana maine, jabse tumko jaana hai describes it as a “love ballad set to a soft rock beat.

“It’s a trendy song of today which youngsters will instantly connect with. It has acoustic drums, electric guitars, a choral orchestra and Lataji’s divine voice,” he says. The song will be filmed on Zeenat Aman, Kapil Sharma, Yuvraaj Parashar, Pakistani actress Sadia Khan and a few European actors.

The film, Dunno Y 2…Life Is A Moment, is being made in Hindi, English and Norwegian and has a mix of Indian and European singers and composers. It is also a collaboration between Indian director Sanjay Sharma and Norwegian director Tonje Gjevjon. “Lataji had sung Pal mein rishtey badalte hai in the original and the Norwegian collaborators loved the song and requested that we bring her on board again,” says Nikhil.

Lead actor Yuvraaj Parashar adds that Lata's voice was recognised at the international film festivals where the film was screened. “In Israel they know only two Bollywood personalities Raj Kapoor and Lata Mangeshkar,” he asserts.

Nikhil called Lata two months ago and sang Jeena kya hai to her on the phone. The usually hard-to-please singer was moved by Vimal Kashyap’s soul-stirring words and Nikhil’s melody. And after hearing that version, she gave him the nod.

It was a marathon four-hour music session that left Nikhil on a high because in between Nikhil had crooned the words 'Dunno Y' which were used as backing vocals. “But Lataji loved the way I had sung and insisted we use my lines up front so they could be heard loud and clear,“ he exults, adding, “She sang each word, flawlessly."

The original film premiered in April 2010 at India's first mainstream gay film festival, the Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, and featured Yuvraaj and Kapil as two men in love. The sequel, according to Nikhil, is a love triangle featuring a woman. “It's a story about relationships not just among the trio, but also between a mother and her son and between the parents. Jeena kya hai is a love ballad set in a soft rock beat and when I hear it today, I know only Lataji could have sung it."