People often presume that an actor’s son would become an actor and it is an easy path for him. But veteran Bollywood actor Rishi Kapoor (who doesn’t really doesn’t like that term) feels this is a huge misconception on their part.
Talking of his autobiography Khullam Khulla: Rishi Kapoor Uncensored, the Indian National Award-winning actor told the not-so-big audience at the Dubai World Trade Centre on Friday that this was the reason behind this event.
“At this time I am the senior most star-son. They say there is nepotism in the industry. I say there is nothing of the sort. I agree it’s a little easier [for star children] to get a break but the onus, the expectation, that he carries is beyond imagination,” said Kapoor, son of the legendary filmmaker Raj Kapoor.
“I know that my struggle was not of hunger or of sleeping on the streets but what [of] after getting a break? You forget that I stepped into the industry at a time when the trend had changed.
The Angry Young Man ruled, action films ruled…Amitabh Bachchan and I became a hit at the same time — he with Zanjeer, I with Bobby. You are only what you are on your own merit.”
Although his first major screen appearance was in the 1970 Mera Naam Joker, Kapoor says he debuted at the age of two. He can be seen in a cameo in the 1955 film Awara, a scene he was bribed to perform.
“I would close my eyes because the rain water would stream into my eyes and I’d immediately shut them. So [actress] Nargis-ji came up to me and said if I gave the shot properly she’d give me this big bar of chocolate. And I succumbed. I got corrupted at the age of two,” said Kapoor, laughing.
Kapoor is part of a family that has created history in Indian cinema and he says he had to write Khullam Khulla so the world would know of the family and its lineage.
After an hour-long singing session by Amit Kumar, who sang many of Kapoor’s songs, for two hours, the actor spoke of his almost 50-year journey in the industry, his family and colleagues.
Here are excerpts from the event.
On lineage
“Indian cinema is 104 years old and with all humility I would like to say that the Kapoor family has contributed nearly 90 years of those 104. My grandfather first appeared in a silent era film, in 1927. We have four male generations of actors — Prithviraj Kapoor, Raj Kapoor, Randhir Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor. On one side was my father, Raj Kapoor, and his brothers, Shammi and Shashi. On the other were my maternal uncles, Prem Nath, Rajendra Nath and Narendra Nath — all actors.
“I was a star at the age of two because I’ve always been within the periphery of the four walls of cinema, theatre, drama…My grandfather, my father, my uncles — on both sides — my aunts, my brothers were all actors.”
Lessons learnt
“Raj Kapoor made Bobby not to launch me as a ‘hero’. I was just another actor in the film. I wanted to be choreographed for my first song Main Shayar To Nahin and he said, ‘If I call for a choreographer he will ask you to do steps and mannerisms he’s asked Dharmendra, Joy Mukherjee, Shashi Kapoor or Rajesh Khanna to do in the last few films. Whoever will see you on the screen will say you imitate them. Create your own on-screen presence rather than following someone else’s style’. He literally threw me in the deep end but it’s something I’ve never forgotten.
“I was once told by someone that when I lip sync a song, I should try and match the pitch of the singer on screen to make it look like I’m really singing it. If it’s a high pitch song the nerves in your neck should stand out to give that effect, even if you may be off tune, I was advised. I passed this on to Ranbir [Kapoor] and he followed it too, which is evident in Rockstar and in the song Bulleya in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil.”
Actors are human too
“I married in 1980 and was working on one of my most important films, Karz. A week after its release, Feroz Khan’s Qurbani, which had the action, the sex, the locales — the works — was releasing. I feared it would overshadow Karz, even though it did good business. Qurbani eclipsed Karz. I went into a shell. I became a problem for my wife, my family, my friends…I felt a total failure as an actor and dreaded facing the lights and camera. There were five major sets left standing because I couldn’t bring myself to perform. My father tried everything from psychiatry to spiritualism to get me out. When I went back to work after a month, Amitabh Bachchan told me he had gone through the same. Dilip Kumar had suffered similarly due to a film. We maybe stars but we too are human. But as destiny would have it, without sounding pompous, today Karz is considered a cult film while Qurbani is not remembered as much.”
