Simply Rishi
The Bollywood veteran actor will be in Dubai on Friday to act out his autobiography, ‘Khullam Khulla’, and spill the beans about his career, colourful past and famous family
The phrase ‘what you see is what you get’ applies to Rishi Kapoor, the prolific actor and the son of matinee idol Raj Kapoor. Our telephone interview, prior to his show in Dubai called Khullam Khulla!
With Rishi Kapoor on Friday at the Dubai World Trade Centre, was a mixed bag. It reminded this journalist of a turbulent job interview in which the panel of interviewers played good cop-bad cop, or that awkward first date where you couldn’t decide if the meeting was going well or not.
A word of advice: if you happen to interact with the actor this Friday: do not utter the word Bollywood. He will go ballistic.
“Why do you call it Bollwood? Why don’t you call it the Indian film industry? I hate our film industry being called Bollywood… I don’t like it. Period. It’s my personal choice,” said Kapoor impatiently.
The 64-year-old claims he feels slighted and “low” when his friends from the West assume that Bollywood is an imitation of their reality and entertainment world known as Hollywood.
“Let’s come up with something original, shall we?”
Not faking it is a popular sentiment with him as he promises to act out his own autobiography this weekend. His book, Khullam Khulla! Uncensored, which chronicles his colourful life, was released this January and has been getting good reviews for its candid approach.
“Faking it has never been my style. I am not a stylised actor and I have been spontaneous all my life. I like to keep things natural. I know acting is about faking it, but I fake it only to make you believe in something. As Mr B.R. Chopra rightly said, ‘acting is all about putting an effort to show effortlessness’,” said Kapoor.