Late actor Rishi Kapoor has often mentioned, including in his autobiography, that he was scared of his father and late actor-filmmaker Raj Kapoor. The two had a strained relationship during his childhood, as the latter was too busy with his work schedule. However, very few people know that the legendary father-son duo went on to share a special bond in the preceding years. In an exclusive conversation with SCREEN, Raj Kapoor’s granddaughter and Rishi Kapoor’s daughter Riddhima Kapoor Sahni revealed that her father gifted the entire collection of his father’s movies to her father-in-law Shrawan Sahni.
Riddhima shares, “I have his entire collection with me here. When I got married, my father gifted my father-in-law the entire collection of Raj Kapoor movies. We used to watch one every other day. He gifted the series in 2006, it was a really special gift.”
The Fabulous Lives Of Bollywood Wives star further adds that she makes sure that her daughter Samara watches her great grandfather’s films. “I just showed her Mera Naam Jokar and Boot Polish, something to start off with. Of course, she is 13 so gets a little distracted, but I keep telling her that your great grandfather had done these movies and he was legendary. She did watch a little bit of it and knows of him, but she is a teenager, so too distracted to sit and watch the entire film at one go. However, she loves my mom’s film Do Kaliyan, that’s her favourite film,” she tells us.
Ask her if she can choose between Raj Kapoor’s talent of acting and direction, like her brother Ranbir Kapoor recently picked direction as his favourite in a session at IFFI, Goa, and she answers, “I would say both to be honest. I have watched each and every film of his, right from Aawara, Shree 420, to Boot Polish. It’s unfair to choose if he was a greater director or actor, I can’t pick one like Ranbir did. He is and will always remain a legend in my eyes.”
To mark the birth centenary of Raj Kapoor, RK Films, Film Heritage Foundation, and NFDC-National Film Archive of India have joined hands to organise a grand retrospective, titled ‘Raj Kapoor 100 – Celebrating the Centenary of the Greatest Showman’. As a part of the celebration, 10 iconic films of Raj Kapoor will be screened in 135 cinemas and 40 cities in India, from December 13 to 15.
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