Khullam Khulla Rishi Kapoor Uncensored

Movie Memories

Rishi Kapoor belongs to the generation of actors whose lives were well documented by the film magazines that were very popular in the Seventies and Eighties before the tabloid and then internet boom. So his life was a lot in the public eye, not as much as stars today, but still with a certain lack of privacy.  That’s why it would probably come as a surprise to the reader that a star as successful and universally admired as Rishi Kapoor went through a period of depression when a few films failed, and even Karz, did not do as well as expected. 

His autobiography, Khullam Khulla Rishi Kapoor Uncensored (co-written by Meena Iyer) has a lot of anecdotes about his life and work, and is as candid as can be—which means it reveals as much as the reader needs to know, without letting it all hang out. It is not so much uncensored as self-censored—which is not necessarily a bad thing; hardly any Indian celebrity would lay his or her life totally bare. And the fact also is, that the Indian reader does not really want to be a voyeur, or of some the scandal-mongering books about stars would have been bestsellers.

Rishi Kapoor is known to be outspoken (he often sets Twitter on fire), witty and articulate—all these traits are displayed in the book. He is also proud of his lineage, good looks and talent, so there is no false modesty. It is also a gentle book in many ways, in that his frankness is not hurtful to anyone. And almost everything is wrapped in a sense of warmth and humour—like a fireside chat with friends over a drink; there is no reason for even the closest friends to know everything.  

He gives a glimpse of his relationship with his father, Raj Kapoor, so wrapped up in his work, that he became a figure to be respected and admired from a distance. He writes quite honestly about the heavy drinking—a Kapoor trait—and his father’s stable but rocky marriage to his mother; rocky because of the affairs everyone knew about.

Because of his father’s brilliance and power, Rishi got his break easily in Mera Naam Joker at 16 (for which he won a National Award and didn’t think it was a big deal then) and then Bobby  at 21, which made him a major star.

He quite rightly says that he did his romantic hits (many with then girlfriend, now wife Neetu Singh) at the height of Amitabh Bachchan’s angry man action roles. He also takes a small swipe at Bachchan for never acknowledging the part of his co-stars in his success. Interestingly, he confesses that he paid to get the Filmfare Award for Bobby, the year Bachchan’s milestone film Zanjeer was released and undoubtedly was more deserving of the trophy. It caused a chill between them, which thawed only with Amar Akbar Anthony.

Amusing too is his encounter with Dawood Ibrahim, and his spats with his friends Jeetendra and Rakesh Roshan. What Rishi does remarkably well, is describe how films used to be made back then, and how the industry was a tightly knit fraternity, where filmmakers cared about their actors and vice versa. Show business has always been an uncertain and competitive business, but is a star was indisposed, the filmmakers and co-stars would wait for him and adjust their dates to accommodate him. Today, a star is surrounded by a phalanx of managers and this air of camaraderie has faded.

Rishi Kapoor is understandably proud of the second phase of his career, when he is getting really challenging roles, after a long innings as romantic star opposite a record-breaking number of new leading ladies. (Perhaps this time, a well-deserved National Award would be a big deal.)

In an afterword Neetu Singh paints an affectionate word picture of the man she lived with for over three decades, in spite of his moods, possessiveness (not just towards his wife but also his daughter Riddhima; he would not be able to bear it if she chose a career in films) and, amusingly, his miserliness. The problems behind them, they are now Bollywood’s most-loved couple and parents to chip-of-the-old-block Ranbir.

There is still a lot of the Rishi Kapoor story still untold—maybe there will be a sequel a few years down the line.

Khullam Khulla Rishi Kapoor Uncensored
By Rishi Kapoor with Meena Iyer
Publisher: Harper Collins
Pages: 280