Rishi Kapoor: The ultimate heartthrob of Indian cinema

Bollywood actor Rishi Kapoor was diagnosed with cancer in 2018 and underwent treatment for almost a year in New York. After fighting with cancer for almost 2 years, he passed away at Sri H.N.Reliance Foundation Hospital in Mumbai on Thursday at the age of 67. He was admitted to the hospital after deteriorating health a day earlier. Within 24 hours of the demise of Irrfan Khan, the death of Rishi Kapoor took the nation by shock. The news was first shared by Amitabh Bachchan on his micro-blogging site, where he wrote, “T 3517- He’s GONE..! Rishi Kapoor.. gone..just passed away..I am destroyed!

During the tough time of his life, he always kept that charming smile that was a part of his identity all these years. In the official statement shared by Neetu Singh on her Instagram, she duly mentioned that the doctors and medical staff at the hospital said Rishi Kapoor kept them entertained to the last. He remained jovial and determines to live to the fullest right through two years of treatment across two continents.

During the period when Rishi was in New York, several celebrities from the film fraternity including Priyanka Chopra, Anupam Kher, Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Karan Johar and Malaika Arora met him at his residence there. Rishi Kapoor was last seen in The Body, alongside Emraan Hashmi.

His fans knew him as much for his acting as for his interesting one-liners, nonpareil fashion sense and unmatched love for food. George Bernard Shaw once said, “There is no love sincerer than the love of food.” and it seems to be appropriate for Rishi Kapoor. According to reports, his life centred around food even on the sets of films. Although he usually preferred to have a healthy breakfast, but was a huge fan of parathas, just a true Punjabi. During the shoot of Housefull 2, just before a breakfast scene was about to be shot, Rishi saw crew members digging into hot parathas. He could not control his temptation and polished off a plateful of them, and when director Sajid Nadiadwala commenced the shoot that involved several retakes, Rishi found it difficult to have another morsel and the shoot had to be delayed!

His Twitter account was a proof that he loved eating out with friends and family and especially Neetu Singh. He loved exploring local eating joints when he was visiting a place and never miss trying the local fare. As per a report, when he went to Kolkata, he would not rest unless he had ‘Jhalmuri’ that he also wanted to carry for his wife and mother. On his 67th birthday, he was spotted dining at a Michelin Star restaurant in New York. A discerning foodie, he was not happy with the food there though. He wrote on Twitter, “”Birthday dinner with Neetu at “Daniel” Boulud flagship restaurant at 65th between Park and Mad.. Disappointed. Highly overrated, overpriced and arrogant. Not recommended at all.” When he was in Delhi, shooting for his film Rajma Chawal at Chandni Chawk, he was nostalgic about his visits to Jama Masjid as a kid where he remembered to have eaten a lot of good food. During the shoot of the film, he ate almost every kind of food that old Delhi had to offer and is said to have explored with relish several local eating joints in the bylanes of Chandni Chawk.

Even Ayushmann Khuranna in his tribute post talked about Rishi Kapoor’s love for food and mentioned about the shooting days of Bewakoofiyaan in Delhi when after the pack up, the team relished home-cooked food from Riddhima’s house.

Ridhima Kapoor Sahni, Rishi Kapoor’s elder daughter who lives in Delhi couldn’t attend the funeral of her father, due to lockdown in the country, but was soon allowed to travel by road to Mumbai and be with her family. On Friday morning, Riddhima shared a photo on her Instagram stories. On the photo, she wrote, “Driving home ma, en route Mumbai.”

He was truly a style icon of his era and Amitabh Bachchan later at night on Thursday recalled all this with a tribute post, where he mentioned, Rishi Kapoor’s stride and style resembled his grandfather Prithviraj Kapoor’s. He had a walk that was confident and determined.. a stride and style that was similar to that of his grandfather, the legendary Prithvi Raj ji.. a walk I had noticed in one of his earlier films.. that walk .. I never found it in any other ..”

Alia Bhatt, who stood by the family and Ranbir Kapoor in this time also wrote a memory post later at night and called Rishi Kapoor a true friend, a fighter, a leader, a beautiful storyteller, an extremely passionate tweeter and a father.

His demise is surely a big loss for the Indian cinema, but for the nation, it’s a loss of an era that gave people zillion memories to cherish for life. From chefs to sportsmen and politicians to bureaucrats, everyone remembered his charming smile in their social media tribute and as Amitabh Bachchan rightly said in his concluding lines, “I am certain.. when he went, he must have gone with a gentle smile …”

News and Condolences by the team of TMM