Top Indian actor Rishi Kapoor dies
A powerhouse of talent
NEW DELHI, April 30, (AP): Top Indian actor Rishi Kapoor, a scion of Bollywood’s most famous Kapoor family, has died. He was 67 and had leukemia.
India’s Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan tweeted on Thursday “Rishi Kapoor gone …. Just passed away … I am destroyed.” Kapoor was hospitalized in Mumbai on Wednesday and died on Thursday, according to a family statement.
He returned to India last September after undergoing treatment in the United States for almost a year. He was hospitalized twice in February.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Kapoor was a powerhouse of talent. “I will always recall our interactions, even on social media. He was passionate about films and India’s progress.”
His father Raj Kapoor and grandfather Prithviraj Kapoor were doyens of Bollywood, the vast Hindi-language film industry based in the western coastal city of Mumbai.
He received the National Film Award for his debut role as a child artist in his father’s 1970 film “Mera Naam Joker.” He acted in more than 90 films. His wife, Neetu Singh, co-starred in several of his films. His son Ranbir Kapoor is a current top Bollywood actor. He is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.
Rahul Gandhi, a Congress party leader, said this was a terrible week for Indian cinema as another top actor Irrfan Khan died on Wednesday, also of cancer. He said Kapoor had a huge fan following across generations.
Film star Priyanka Chopra said Kapoor’s
death was the end of an era. “#Rishisir your candid heart and immeasurable talent will never be encountered again.”
Kapoor’s popular hits included “Laila Majnu,” a story of legendary Indian lovers, “Debt,” “Moonlight,” “Sometimes,” “Sea” and “Lightning.” In 1999, he directed “Let’s Go Back.”
He switched to supporting roles in the 2000s and popular movies included “Namastey London” and “Love Aj Kal” or “Love Today and Tomorrow.” He acted until recently and his last movie ”The Body” was released in 2019.
Award
Rishi Kapoor born on Sept 4, 1952, was an Indian actor, director and producer known for his work in Hindi cinema. He received the National Film Award for Best Child Artist for his debut role in his father Raj Kapoor’s 1970 film Mera Naam Joker. He had his first lead role as an adult, opposite Dimple Kapadia, in the film Bobby (1973), and won the Filmfare Best Actor Award in 1974.
He played leading roles as the romantic lead in 92 films between 1973 and 2000. For his performance in Do Dooni Chaar, he won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor in 2011, and for his role in Kapoor & Sons, he won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2017. He was honoured with the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. He appeared opposite his wife Neetu Singh (married 1980) in twelve films between 1973 and 1981.
Kapoor’s first on-screen appearance was a cameo at around age three, in the song “Pyar Hua, Iqrar Hua Hai”, in his father Raj Kapoor’s Shree 420. He debuted in Raj Kapoor’s 1970 film Mera Naam Joker, portraying the childhood of the latter’s character. He played his first leading role, opposite Dimple Kapadia, in the 1973 film Bobby, also directed by his father. About the making of Bobby, he said in a 2012 interview, “There was a misconception that the film was made to launch me as an actor. The film was actually made to pay the debts of Mera Naam Joker. Dad wanted to make a teenage love story and he did not have money to cast Rajesh Khanna in the film”. The film went on to become one of the decade’s biggest hits in India, and earned him the Filmfare Best Actor Award.
He moved on to supporting roles in the 2000s. He has since appeared in films such as Yeh Hai Jalwa (2002), Hum Tum (2004), Fanaa (2006), Namastey London (2007), Love Aaj Kal (2009) and Patiala House (2010). He also appeared in the British films Don’t Stop Dreaming (2007) and Sambar Salsa (2008). He reunited onscreen with Neetu Singh in the film Do Dooni Chaar (2010).
He also acted in the movie Chintu Ji in which he played himself. In 2012 he appeared in a villainous role in Agneepath and in the multi-starrer Housefull 2 where he appeared with brother Randhir Kapoor for the first time after ‘Khazana’ in the mid-1980s. He made a cameo appearance in Yash Chopra’s Jab Tak Hai Jaan along with his wife.