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Dining With The Kapoors, a Netflix special that brings together the Kapoor family, premiered on Netflix today. In the special, Ranbir Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Neetu Singh, Saif Ali Khan, Karisma Kapoor and other family members gather for a lunch hosted by Armaan Jain to celebrate the 100th birth anniversary of the late auteur Raj Kapoor. One absence, of course, was felt most deeply, that of Rishi Kapoor, the actor who often spoke of his legendary father with equal parts fear, awe, and affection.
In an old interview with Film Companion, Rishi Kapoor had recalled what it was like to be directed by Raj Kapoor, especially during the making of Prem Rog. Raj, he said, expected a very specific kind of performance, one inspired by none other than Dilip Kumar. Rishi remembered an instance when his father lost his temper during a shot: “Chintu (Rishi) mujhe Yusuf chahiye. Look as Dilip Kumar looks in a shot. I want you to do that.” Rishi went on to admire his father’s confidence and generosity, saying, “I mean no other actor would talk about his contemporary like that. He told me that I want you to look like him. I want you to feel it like him.”
In the same conversation, Rishi Kapoor spoke warmly about Raj Kapoor’s sensitivity as a director, how he treated his actors with immense care, perhaps because he himself had been one of the finest performers of his generation. Yet, Rishi added with a laugh, the responsibility (and blame) often fell on him when a shot didn’t meet Raj Kapoor’s expectations. “Whenever he wasn’t 100% satisfied with it, he needed one more take, so he would say cut and then put the whole blame on me saying, ‘I had told you to do it that way, then why are you doing it wrong.’ So you know, I used to get the blame for nothing, for no reason at all.”
For those unaware, the bond between Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor stretched far beyond professional admiration. Their friendship began in childhood, long before they became towering figures of Indian cinema. In an old interview with Lehren Retro, Dilip had reminisced about their early days in Peshawar and how Raj encouraged him to consider acting as a career. “So he used to tell me you go into films, we both will go into films. But I said no, because that was not the thing in those times you would aspire to do. So I used tell him that you go, your father also does the same, so you should follow his footsteps.”
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