Rishi Kapoor was effortless actor, an true gentleman a
Poonam Dhillon breaks into tears as she talks about her dear friend Rishi Kapoor’s demise, and wishes “the news wasn’t true”. Kapoor, 67, breathed his last after a two-year-long battle with cancer on April 30. “This is such a terrible time to have to go through this. Everybody is feeling so helpless... I can’t believe Chintu (his nickname) is not among us,” she says. Dhillon met him two months earlier. “Chintu had recovered and was so grateful to have beaten such a horrible disease. It’s going to be very difficult to accept that he is gone. I knew him since I was 18. We have been friends and I was close to his family. I had worked with him, Dabboo (Randhir Kapoor), Shammi Kapoor uncle, Shashi ji (Shashi Kapoor),” she adds. Dhillon and Kapoor had collaborated in films such as Yeh Vaada Raha (1982), Tawaif (1985),
Zamana (1985), Ek Cha Maili Si (1986), Dosti Dushmani (1986), Amiri Garibi (1990), Yeh Hai Jalwa (2002), among others. And they wanted to work together again. “The other day I joked saying, ‘Aaj kal baat toh karte ho par kaam kab karenge?’ and he said, ‘Haan yaar, chal ek saath ek film karte hai’,” she says.
The actor says Kapoor “looked fit” when she last met him. “He was an unassuming, effortless actor. He never needed any prep. His performance wasn’t theatrical or dramatic, he was a natural actor. That’s what I loved about him,” she adds. Dhillon shared a “fun and warm” relationship with Kapoor and they would often joke with each other. “I learnt a lot from him. He was a good man. He would never misbehave with anyone. He expressed what he felt, which at times would sound wrong, but that’s that,” she recalls. Calling him one of the “finest actors of our times”, she says it’s a “huge loss” for everyone. “It’s sad that on his last day, there was a restriction to pay our last tribute to this true gentleman,” she concludes.