He himself tied a rakhi on behalf of my wife

It’s a sad day today. I’ve lost a very dear friend. When someone messaged me this morning asking me if the news was true, I was sure that it wasn’t because I had spoken to

Neetu

just the night before. I tried calling Randhir but his phone was busy for a long time which gave me a sense that something was wrong. I didn’t have the heart to call Neetu so I eventually spoke to Ranbir and he confirmed the news. I broke down over the phone and instead of me consoling him, he consoled me.

I had dinner with him on March 18, just a few days before the lockdown. We had both suffered from cancer around the same time — he was diagnosed in August and I in December. But we both remained very positive. He was quite vibrant when I met him last. He spoke about having gone to Delhi the previous month and how the pollution there had probably caused a relapse but he insisted that he was fine. I asked him not to worry and that it was a disease that he would need to give time to. I asked him to relax at home, not think of work and bounce back. Barely two weeks later he was hospitalised.

We go back a long way—we got very close during the making of Khel Khel Mein (1975). Our nature was very similar. We were both outgoing, loved food and loved to enjoy life in the same ways. We went on so many holidays abroad together as couples—he, Neetu and their children (Riddhima and Ranbir) and me with my wife (Pinky Roshan) and kids (Hrithik and Sunaina). We did many films together as co-actors and later, he made a special appearance on a song in my first directorial venture and readily agreed to feature in Aap Ke Deewane, the first film I produced. As an actor, his strength was his spontaneity. During a retake, most actors will try and improve their lines while he would do something instinctive and completely different, which could be challenging for a co-actor but would amaze me as a director.

It’s too early for me to even think of all my memories with him but the best thing about our friendship is that we knew each other’s faults and accepted them. That’s probably why our friendship endured for so many years. If he ever told me something that I may not want to hear, I’d never take it to heart. Because he is ‘Rishi Kapoor’ and he says things in a way that no one can. What he was inside, he showed it on the outside. He was very frank but never cunning or manipulative. I’m that way too and both of us called black black, and white white. He was a rakhi brother to my wife and when he was in New York for his treatment, he called to tell us that he had tied a rakhi on his own hand, on her behalf. That’s how sensitive he really was.

(As told to Mohua Das)


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