When Rishi Kapoor refused to work with Amitabh Bachchan, said ‘Amitabh never gave due credit to actors who worked with him’

It’s been virtually a 12 months that Bollywood’s evergreen heartthrob Rishi Kapoor handed away. The actor died on April 30, 2020, after battling most cancers for 2 years. His dying left his many followers, associates and colleagues heartbroken. Even as we speak he’s remembered because the golden boy of Hindi cinema, who gained hearts together with his singing, dancing and appearing on the silver display screen. Folks additionally bear in mind him for his no-holds-barred angle which he very properly showcased in his biography Khullam Khulla – Rishi Kapoor Uncensored. He was a kind of few individuals within the trade who was not afraid to overtly converse his ideas.

In his memoir, Kapoor was brutally sincere about his private {and professional} life. Whereas as we speak many actors choose to not focus on their private life, Rishi candidly wrote about his relationship together with his spouse Neetu Kapoor. He talked about how she was somebody who would ‘put up’ with him regardless of him being a tough husband. At occasions when he was failing on the motion pictures, he blamed his spouse. Additionally, he refused to work on Yash Chopra’s 1976 movie Kabhi Kabhie since Neetu had a meatier position than his. He talked about in his guide, “I felt Neetu had a extra outstanding position than I did. That’s why I had mentioned to Yash Chopra, if you would like me to do the movie, give me Neetu’s position. Naturally, Yash-ji was confused.” Later, Shashi Kapoor intervened and Rishi did the movie.

A poster of Yash Chopra’s Kabhi Kabhie.

For Rishi Kapoor, the rationale for rejecting Kabhie Kabhie was not solely Neetu Kapoor. The actor additionally wrote a couple of ‘lingering concern’ he had with Amitabh Bachchan.

“To return to Amitabh, I need to confess right here remains to be a lingering concern I’ve with Amitabh Bachchan. A giant drawback of working in an all-star film in these days was that everyone solely wished to make motion movies, which robotically meant that the star who may carry off motion with essentially the most aptitude would get the meatiest half. That’s how, excluding Kabhi Kabhie, which was a romantic movie, not one of the multi-starrers I featured in had an author-backed position for me. And it wasn’t simply me. Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna confronted it too,” Rishi Kapoor wrote in Khullam Khulla.

“Amitabh is undeniably an excellent actor, immensely proficient and, on the time, the primary star who dominated the box-office. He was an motion hero, the offended younger man. So roles have been written for him. Though we might have been smaller stars, we weren’t lesser actors. But, the remainder of us needed to continually measure as much as him. We needed to work exhausting, actually exert ourselves to match up. In my time, the musical/romantic hero had no place. Amitabh was an motion hero in an period of motion movies. As such, writers gave him the lion’s share and he had the authorbacked roles in virtually all his movies. This gave him a bonus over the remainder of us who needed to make our presence felt with no matter we received. However that is one thing that Amitabh has by no means ever admitted to, in any interview or guide. He has by no means given due credit score to the actors who’ve labored with him. He has all the time credited his writers and administrators, Salim-Javed, Manmohan Desai, Prakash Mehra, Yash Chopra and Ramesh Sippy.”

Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor shared the display screen in movies like Kabhi Kabhie (1976), Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), Naseeb (1981), Coolie (1983) and Ajooba (1991). They got here collectively after 27 years in 2018 movie 102 Not Out.