RAJ KAPOOR BIRTH ANNIVERSARY: USS DIN RAJ KAPOOR NE LATA JI KO APNE NANHE SE BACHCHE RISHI KE BAARE MEIN KYA KAHA THA? - By Ali Peter John

In the fifties, Lata Mangeshkar was a regular visitor at R.K. Studios. It was during one such visits that Raj Kapoor brought his little son Chintu (Rishi Kapoor) to RK and Lata kept playing with the child and predicted a bright future for him, but Raj Kapoor stopped her midway and said, “Lata, mera yeh beta toh ek bahut bada director hi banega”. And Lata said “Tathaastu” and continued playing with the child who she called “Chintu Baba” and who grew up to be her favourite at RK - Ali Peter John

Rishi was not very much interested in studies even though his father sent him to one of the best schools in Mumbai, the Don Bosco High School in Matunga. He was more interested in hanging around his father’s studio and his father too kept encouraging him to learn more about direction and kept telling all his friends, “Dekhna, yeh mera Chintu ek din bad director ho kar rahega”. Making Rishi a director became Raj Kapoor’s obsession, but Rishi showed interest in acting. Then came the turning point in the lives of both father and son. Raj Kapoor launched his dream film, “Mera Naam Joker” which was the story of his life told in a film and in the making of which Raj Kapoor was not going to leave any stone unturned. He needed a child artiste to play the little Raj Kapoor in the film and when no child artiste could satisfy him, he decided to cast his son Chintu. And Chintu not only lived up to his father’s expectation but also went on to win the National Award for the best child artiste and many other awards.

The film made on a massive scale and with some of the big stars of that time was a ‘midas’ touch at box-office and Raj Kapoor’s empire was in serious trouble and he had even mortgaged his studio. He went on a binge and drank himself silly and lost all hopes of reviving R.K. Studios. But he was a filmmaker and a showman and he couldn’t give up easily. He went to his friend, his writer K. A. Abbas, who had written the script of “Mera Naam Joker” and also the scripts of “Shree 420” and “Awaara”. He told Abbas that only he could save him from his “barbadi”. He said don’t be lonely when he had his only wealth, his son, Chintu who he wanted to cast as his leading man in his next film, as no other actor or star was willing to work with a maker who had made a big flop like “Mera Naam Joker”. In his struggle to revive his empire, Raj Kapoor had cleanly forgotten his dream to make Chintu a director.

 

Abbas wrote the script of “Bobby” which Raj Kapoor made with Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia. He gave music directors Laxmikant-Pyarelal a big break and “Bobby” was a very big hit and a trend-setter. Raj Kapoor was back in the business in Bollywood. And Bollywood had found its new romantic hero and both Raj Kapoor and Rishi had to forget all about the dream to have a big director in the Kapoor family. There were occasions when Rishi found opportunities to show his skill as a director and he did; but his first big opportunity to direct a film came after Raj Kapoor died and when his sons’ Randhir, Rishi and Rajiv had taken an oath on their father’s dead body to direct one film every year by turns.

Randhir had completed “Henna” which was left incomplete by their father. Rajiv made “Prem Granth” with Rishi and Madhuri Dixit which flopped and Rishi too on the challenge of directing “Aa Ab Laut Chale” which was a multi-starrer and mostly shot abroad. But which couldn’t make any impact. Rishi was very disappointed and kept waiting for a good script for more than two-years and finally gave up his dream to direct films and listened to the advice of his friend, Rahul Rawail and agreed to play character roles. And he turned out to be one of the most successful and versatile character actor of Hindi cinema and he kept playing one good role after another till cancer struck him and didn’t leave him till it took him away from this life and all the good things of life – and above all films.