If, as Amitabh Bachchan says, no one could lip-sync songs better than Rishi Kapoor, then it is equally true to say no one could react to another co-star’s singing the way Rishi could.

Rishi was not afraid to share the screen frame with co-stars. He was a very generous star who treated Amitabh Bachchan and newcomer Sammir Dattani with equal respect. Dattani who had the privilege of sharing screen space with Rishi Kapoor in Pyar Mein Twist(2005) remembers how helpful and generous the senior actor was towards Dattani and his co-star Soha Ali Khan.

Rishi loved working with newcomers. He felt they enthused him into staying young and vigilant as an actor .In his long and lionized career Rishi played the lead opposite any number of new actresses: Ranjeeta Kaur in Laila Majnu(1976), Shoma Anand in Barood(1976), Kajal Kirron in Hum Kissise Kam Nahin(1977), Bhavna Bhatt in Naya Daur(1978),Jaya Prada in Sargam(1978), Vinita Goel in Janam Janam(1988),etc etc. The list is endless, as the actor’s quest for reinvigorating his career was relentless.

Though typecast as a lover-boy from his debut as a leading man in his father Raj Kapoor’s musical blockbuster Bobby(1973) some of Rishi Kapoor’s best performances featured him in image-breaking dark roles,such as the angry rebel in his early film Zehreela Insaan(1974). This film with Rishi scowling behind a fake moustache, came right after Bobby. The audience rejected his attempt to play an anti-hero so soon after his romantic debut in Bobby. He had no choice but to go back to playing the lover-boy in Khel Khel Mein(the first of many films he did with his future wife Neeetu Singh), Laila Majnu, Amar Akbar Anthony and Hum Kissise Kam Nahin, all super-hits until Rishi’s career was eclipsed by the Amitabh Bachchan wave .

But Rishi found a way out. He co-starred in a string of films with Mr Bachchan in the 1980s . not bothered with the length of his role, as long as he had at least one or two meaty scenes to chew on.

But the actor’s most accomplished performances are to be found in little-known films where he didn’t have to play the sweater-draped lover-boy. I’d say Rishi’s best performances are in J P Dutta’s Hathyar(where he played the straight-laced sibling of an underworld don), Keshu Ramsay’s Khoj(a whodunit where, playing against his image, he was cast as a murderer), and later in his career post his youthful days, in Zoya Akhtar’s Luck By Chance,Habib Faisal’s Do Dooni Chaar, Karan Malhotra’s Agneepath, Shakun Batra’s Kapoor & Sons and Umesh Shukla’s 102 Not Out . These are the films that showcase Rishi’s raging range that extended from the cute to the strange.

Rishi Kapoor’s last truly accomplished performance was in Anubhav Sinha’s Mulk in 2018. Thereafter his last four films were woefully poor in content. Luckily there is so much to remember Rishi by ,where do we begin!

Despite his mammoth accomplishments Rishi Kapoor always felt shortchanged. He always grumbled about not being given recognition for his performances.

He once told me, “I never did believe in the awards.Except the National award which I got for Mera Naam Joker when I was 14. It’s gotten much worse now. I use awards trophies as doorstops in my home. What they have done to film awards is truly tragic. They’ve reduced them to trivia. Shameless. Agar sabko khush karna hai toh phir award ka matlab kya hua?(if they are only given to please everyone then what is the relevance of awards?)”.