I wish I could just pick up the phone and ask him, 'Dad, how are you doing?' [Throwback]

Rishi Kapoor's death has caused irreparable damage not just to his family but also to the film industry. After losing his battle to cancer, Kapoor was cremated at Chandanwadi Crematorium, Mumbai in the presence of his family members and close friends.

According to reports, Ranbir Kapoor broke down at his father's funeral and was inconsolable. His girlfriend Alia Bhatt too was in tears along with Neetu Kapoor and others mourning over the untimely demise of the veteran actor.

It's an open secret that Rishi Kapoor and Ranbir had an on and off father-son relationship. Rishi Kapoor had been quite open about it and told the media that he had screwed up his relationship with his son Ranbir. Kapoor was upset when Ranbir decided to left his family and move in with his then-girlfriend Katrina Kaif.

But things had slowly begun to heal with time and the two got more closer to each other when Kapoor was diagnosed with cancer in September 2018. Since then, Ranbir had been in constant touch with his father making frequent visits to New York along with Alia to keep a check on his health condition.

And in fact, not just Kapoor, but Ranbir too had breifly opened up about the kind of relationship he shared with his father in the foreword of the latter's autobiography Khullam Khulla.

'Dad, how are you doing?'

Ranbir had said that he was close to his mother Neetu than his father as Kapoor had modelled his relationship with him that he had shared with his father and legendary actor Raj Kapoor. Although he wished that he could be more closer to him but had said that he has no sense of loss or vacuum.

"As far as my personal relationship with him goes, well, it is one of complete reverence. I am closer to my mother. I feel that Dad modelled his relationship with me on the one he shared with his own father. And it is true that I have never crossed a certain line with him. But there is no sense of loss or vacuum here. I do wish sometimes that I could be friendlier with him or even spend more time with him. Sometimes I wish I could just pick up the phone and ask him, 'Dad, how are you doing?' But we do not have that. We do not have a phone relationship. Of course, he does message me. He also takes care of the financial side of my work. So we are more connected now," Ranbir Kapoor had wrote in the foreword of Khullam Khulla.

Speaking about the kind of father he would be to his children, Ranbir had said, "When I get married and have children, I would want to change that dynamic with them. I don't want my relationship with my children to be as formal as the one I have with my father. I want to be friendlier, be more connected, spend more time with them than he did with me. Having said that, I love my father dearly and have immense respect for him. I'm inspired by him and never want to let him down. I know he has only my best interests at heart. His confidence in me and my work makes me take pride in it. I persevere that much harder because of this. His belief and his encouragement are important to me."

'I cannot be a friend to a son'

Rishi Kapoor, too, in his old interviews, had spoken about his failure as a father and how he couldn't be there for him during Ranbir's childhood.

"I never argued with my father and it so happened that unfortunately, the same kind of relationship passed on with me and Ranbir. I really want that there should be love and respect between us.

"But I am not the type of guy, who will ask him (Ranbir) to share secrets of his girlfriends and all that. I am sorry. It's my failure. I want there to be a wall between me and him where I can see him, but can't feel him," Rishi Kapoor had told the media at the launch event of his autobiography.

Kapoor had further said, "Ranbir feels that when he is going to have kids, he is not going to be like me. It's a generation gap. I cannot be a friend to a son. You must accept me the way I am."

Rishi Kapoor had also expressed his wish to see Ranbir getting married soon. But unfortunately, his wish has remained unfulfilled with his sudden demise.