When Neetu Kapoor said Rishi Kapoor would have ‘killed himself’ if daughter Riddhima talked about becoming an actress: ‘She knew it would upset him’

“She is a wonderfully talented and beautiful girl. She’s a fabulous mimic and would have given any actress a run for her money. But even as a child, she knew how much it would upset her father if she decided to become an actress. He doesn’t think badly of actresses or feel that girls shouldn’t work in movies. But he’s zealously overprotective of his wife and children. Riddhima understood her father well. For the sake of his peace of mind, she never attempted to pursue acting as a career. Instead she said, ‘I want to design clothes,’ and Bob (Rishi) happily sent her to London to study,” Neetu shared.

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The women from the Kapoor family were known for staying away from the camera in those days. Raj Kapoor’s daughters and nieces were never a part of the movies. His daughters-in-law, Babita and Neetu Kapoor, also quit their careers as actors as soon as they got married. Babita and Randhir Kapoor’s daughters, Karisma and Kareena, were raised by their mother. They made it into the movies largely because of her support.

Neetu, who also quit her career at 21, said that Rishi was scared of the “ugly side of stardom” and did not want his daughter to get into that mess where tabloids wrote about her personal life and love affairs. “This ugly side of stardom scared my husband and he didn’t want to see his daughter entangled in that mess. It was something that worried him all through her growing-up years until she got married to Bharat. Once she settled down, Bob was a much-relieved man and his relationship with Riddhima grew stronger and more open.” she said.

Riddhima became a public figure after she started her career as an influencer and started posting frequently on social media. On the Netflix show, she shared that her daughter Samara wants to be an actress when she grows up.