The old-school actor
Known for his sense of humour and his easygoing nature, Randhir Kapoor is a supreme entertainer even in real life, says rajiv vijayakar
As a hero, he had a high for over a decade with films like Jawani Diwani, Raampur Ka Lakshman, Hamrahi, Haath Ki Safai, Ponga Pandit, Chacha Bhatija and Kasme Vaade. As a director, he made an impact with Kal Aaj Aur Kal, Dharam Karam and Henna. What’s more, Randhir Kapoor produced Ram Teri Ganga Maili, among the biggest grossing films of all time, and fathered the first female superstars from the Kapoor clan — Karisma and Kareena Kapoor.
Little wonder then, that Randhir Kapoor is a contented man today. Known always for his sense of humour and his happy-go-lucky nature, Daboo (as known to those close to him) is a supreme entertainer in real life. When we meet up at his RK Studios office, he is smiling, chuckling or guffawing all the time. And yet the intensity comes across through all the fun.
Like when he guffaws, “Today’s media could do with a bit of maturity. They ask me extremely silly questions like ‘How does it feel not to have a son?’ So I tell them, ‘Yes, I don’t have a son, but I have a grand son (grandson)’. And they take it down as a quotable quote! Or they quiz me on whether I am on talking terms with the Bachchans and what I think of Saif Ali Khan being a Muslim. Grow up, guys, and move on!”
And yet he is mighty proud of both his lineage and the newest generation. “I have two daughters — both superstars who have conducted themselves with honour and dignity. They, along with my brother Rishi’s son Ranbir, are the fourth generation Kapoors. No other family has had four generations of top stars, as against also-rans, anywhere in world cinema!”
Terming his father unequalled as a filmmaker in India, he recalls how despite being ‘the Raj Kapoor’, his father always made films for the masses. “Do you know that he changed the climaxes of both Bobby and Ram Teri Ganga Maili? He would show his films to the RK staff and families and would act on their feedback. They were not happy with the way he had ended the two stories. So he simply reshot them, and see how huge both the films were!”
He repeatedly stresses that he belongs to the “old school” where values and priorities were different, and cinema was content-driven and all about passion. He explains, “My father never made movies for Manhattan like they do nowadays! His music too lives on because it was creative, rooted and solid. Shankar-Jaikishan were composers without equal. Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Kalyanji-Anandji, S D Burman and everyone else — what music these guys made, yaar! R D Burman had no technology to help him, so he created sounds. What are all these music-makers of today talking about when they claim to be experimental or innovative? And where’s the music?”
Now and then
So why has he, and RK Films too, not made a film for such a long time? “I only blame myself!” he says candidly. “Somewhere, Rishi, Rajiv and I lost heart and that’s why Prem Granth and Aa Ab Laut Chalen were rejected by the people. I do want to make films, one with Kareena and another with Ranbir.”
Randhir keeps busy managing his father’s RK Studios, a venerated institution and a landmark in Mumbai’s suburb of Chembur. But ever since he gave up lead roles in the mid-80s because all he was offered were “bad roles in bad movies when the action wave was at its height,” he has done sporadic character roles in a few films like Mother, Censor and Armaan. “Do you know that I was paid much more for my recent cameo in Housefull than I was as a hero?” he guffaws. “But where is the value for the rupee now?”
He enjoys working with the young crowd “that is so respectful to me” and is now doing a mad scientist’s role in Vipul Amrutlal Shah’s Action Replayy starring Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and a major role in Rahul Parzania Dholakia’s Society with Dimple Kapadia.
“I was on back-slapping terms with all my heroines,” he recalls. “I am in touch with most of them even today, like Rekha, Zeenat Aman, Tina Munim or Poonam Dhillon. In those days, however, the heroes were buddies in real life but would keep their distance professionally. We would shun two-hero or multi-hero films till Shashi Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan started the multi-star trend. I turned down Vijay Arora’s role in Nasir Husain-saab’s Yaadon Ki Baraat, wondering what I would have to do in a Dharmendra action film. And for similar reasons, almost every hero — big and small — turned down Vinod Khanna’s role in my Haath Ki Safai, for which he won a major award as Best Supporting Actor.”
For those who came in late, Randhir Kapoor’s professional beginning was unique — he remains, at least in Indian cinema, the only major star to have started out as a hero and director with the same film, Kal Aaj Aur Kal.
“I liked the story, and I told my father that I would like to direct it, that’s all,” he signs off, though he can never forget the honour of directing his grandfather (Prithviraj Kapoor), father and wife-to-be (Babita) besides himself in roles that were identical with their real-life personae.
