From sipping tea with Dawood to buying his debut award: Rishi Kapoor's controversial confessions

Rishi Kapoor's sudden demise has shocked the nation. The veteran actor was diagnosed with cancer in 2018 after which he flew down to New York to get himself treated. Rishi came back to India in 2019 considering things were back to normal. The actor was admitted to the Reliance Hospital on the 29th of April and passed away on April 30. Reminiscing some of Rishi Kapoor's memories we have a few confessions made by the actor in his autobiography 'Khullam Khulla' that was unveiled a few years ago. 

Rishi Kapoor on meeting Underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim

"I did so much of him in 'D-Day', I was inspired by him for playing that role." Rishi said he had a "couple of cups of tea" with Dawood in their around four-hour-long meetings. The meeting happened before the 1993 Mumbai blasts. But he was still a criminal wanted by the law. Rishi said there was "nothing wrong at all" in meeting Dawood as he feels he can "derive inspiration from these kinds of people for films sometimes".

On receiving gifts from Dawood, "Never... But he offered me and asked me, 'Can I get you something?' I said 'No, why would you get me anything? I can afford what I want'."

Further justifying his meeting with Dawood, Rishi said: "I am not a hypocrite — there's nothing wrong (with having met him). People go to prisons to meet criminals. I met him in a foreign country. By that time, he had not gone against our country — at least not done something as grave as he did later."

Accepting father Raj Kapoor's extra-marital affairs

"I was very young when my father had an affair with Nargis Ji, and so was not affected by it. I don't remember feeling anything was amiss at home either. But I do remember moving into the Natraj Hotel on Marine Drive with my mom during the time Papa was involved with Vyjayanthimala. My mother had decided to put her foot down this time. From the hotel, we shifted for two months into an apartment in Chitrakoot. My father had bought the apartment for Mom and us. He did all he could to woo her back, but my mother wouldn't give in until he had ended that chapter of his life."

Why Rajesh Khanna threw away Rishi's ring

"Yasmin (Yasmin Mehta, Rishi Kapoor's first girlfriend) had presented me with a ring when we were dating, a simple one with a peace sign on it. When we were filming Bobby, Dimple would pull it off and wear it on her finger. She ended up keeping it. When Rajesh Khanna proposed to her, he saw the ring and flung it into the sea near her house in Juhu. Inevitably the headlines blazed: 'Rajesh Khanna throws Rishi Kapoor's ring into the sea'. The truth is that I was never in love with Dimple or even infatuated with her," says Rishi Kapoor.

Rishi's rivalry with Amitabh Bachchan

In his memoir, Rishi Kapoor says that during his era, roles were specifically written for Amitabh Bachchan and he was credited for the success of all his films, despite the fact that the secondary characters were also superb actors in their own rights. Putting across his point, Rishi writes, "To go back to Amitabh, I must confess here is still a lingering issue I have with Amitabh Bachchan. A big disadvantage of working in an all-star movie in those days was that everybody only wanted to make action films, which automatically meant that the star who could carry off the action with the most flair would get the meatiest part. That's how, with the exception of Kabhi Kabhie, which was a romantic film, none of the multi-starrers I featured in had an author-backed role for me. And it wasn't just me. Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna faced it too".

He further added saying, "Although we may have been smaller stars, we were not lesser actors. But this is something that Amitabh has never ever admitted to, in any interview or book. He has never given due credit to the actors who have worked with him."

 Rishi admits to buying the award for debut film 'Bobby'

Talking about the cold war between Amitabh Bachchan and him during the filming of their movie Kabhi Kabhie, Rishi says that maybe it was because he had won an award which Amitabh wanted. Elaborating it, Rishi writes, "I think that Amitabh was sulking because I had won the best actor award for Bobby. I am sure he felt the award was rightfully his for Zanjeer, which released the same year. I am ashamed to say it, but I actually 'bought' that award. I was so naïve. There was this PRO, Taraknath Gandhi, who said to me, 'Sir, tees hazaar de do, toh aap ko main award dila doonga.' I am not the manipulative sort but I admit that I gave him the money without thinking."