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Shalini Singh
Shalini Singh

BOOK LAUNCH

Today's kids are like instant noodles: Rishi Kapoor

rishi5 Rishi Kapoor (left) and Suhel Seth in conversation during the launch of Kapoor's autobiography Khullam Khulla | Aayush Goel

You can make an author out of an actor but you can't take acting out of him. At a lively, animated launch of Rishi Kapoor's autobiography, Khullam Khulla, in Delhi, the actor made sure the audience—a tightly-packed bunch despite a cold winter evening—were regaled. Talking about his association with the film, Amar Akbar Anthony, with Amitabh Bachchan and Vinod Khanna, he chose to enact, rather than narrate, his long-distance phone conversation over a faulty line with the director Manmohan Desai back in the 1970s about the film. Management professional Suhel Seth, who was in conversation with the actor, forewarned a tittering audience of an evening of “cerebral insanity”.

In keeping with the thematic candour of the book, Kapoor promised to be “brutally honest”, going on to talk about his relationship with his father, the late Raj Kapoor, as one of reserve and distance. A similar one that he has with his son, actor Ranbir Kapoor, today. “I always feel there should be a wall, one can't get too close. I know I am wrong. Ranbir says he can't be a father like me, so guess I failed at that.”

In response to what he thought of the younger generation, the actor quipped, “Today's kids are like instant noodles, they are well-informed, come to work on time... unlike us, who weren't that disciplined.”

rishi3 Rishi Kapoor and wife Neetu Singh (centre) with Suhel Seth during the launch of Kapoor's autobiography | Aayush Goel

Asked what he misses in films now, Kapoor said, “We have lost the lyrical value of music today.” Admitting he paid for an award several years back, he said, “I paid Rs 30,000 to a man who came to me and said he could get me to win it. I was young, brash and a brat, so I did it. I felt guilty about it.”

On his equation with Bachchan, he said that he counted himself as “one of the small steps” in the superstar's “ladder of success”, adding that it was difficult to imagine any of the big ticket stars of today to work like that with each other. “It's not economically viable in today's times,” he said in jest.

When Seth asked why Kapoor was an angry bird on Twitter, he quipped, “Because I was frustrated that I couldn't be the angry young man in Bollywood!”

The evening ended with a “surprise”—a tribute song from the actor's film, Khel Khel Mein, sung by singer-turned-politician Babul Supriyo.

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