Rishi Kapoor who would have been 71 today if he had lived, made peace with his son Ranbir when he fell ill.
But by any stretch of the imagination theirs was a stormy relationship for most of Rishi’s life.
In a candid conversation with me Rishi had poured his heart out on the subject. “I don’t why. But Ranbir and I have never seen eye to eye. Yes, we’ve serious problems, but Ranbir is working on it.”
One major bone of contention between the two was Ranbir’s script sense.
Not many people know that Ranveer Singh had been finalized for the doomed Bombay Velvet. Then suddenly Ranbir got interested in the project and Ranveer was ousted even without informing him properly. That’s how Ranbir got into the doomed project.
Rishi Kapoor was against Ranbir doing both Bombay Velvet and Jagga Jasoos.Rishi had a wonderful script sense,as we all know. He implored Ranbir to run his projects through him. But Ranbir wouldn’t listen.
When Ranbir was working on his debut film Saawariya, Rishi was very unhappy that director Sanjay Bhansali would not show a single frame of the work to Rishi nor tell the concerned father what the film was about. Finally Bhansali had to take Neetu’s help to get Rishi off his back.
During the prolonged making of Jagga JasoosAnurag Basu wouldn’t listen to Rishi Kapoor’s repeated requests to be shown the film.After it flopped Rishi called Basu an “irresponsible filmmaker.”
Rishi Kapoor spawned eras eagerly, went from Bobby in the 1970s to Hum Kisise Kum Nahin in the 80s to Bol Radha Bol in the 90s to Agneepath in the 2020s, all within a 40-year career. He never shied away from attempting a makeover when it was demanded of him.
Ranbir too has inherited his dad’s yearning to constantly try new characters. But somewhere in a very short span of time that spark which ignited the frames whenever he walked into them has dimmed. Experts say the quality which has gone out of his performances is….vulnerability.