“Amitabh has never given due credit to the co-stars”, says Rishi Kapoor in his autobiography

This week marks the release of not one, but two big Bollywood autobiographies. The first is filmmaker Karan Johar’s “An Unsuitable Boy”, has been co-authored by Poonam Saxena. And the second one is Rishi Kapoor’s “Khullam Khulla: Uncensored”, co-written with Meena Iyer.

In his autobiography, Rishi has revealed some of the unknown aspects of his life, right from his and his late father Raj Kapoor’s affairs with co-stars to his belief on father-son relationships, and his passion for acting.

Rishi Kapoor also pen down about co-star of many films and megastar Amitabh Bachchan in his book. He wrote “Amitabh has never ever admitted to, in any interview or book. He has never given due credit to the actors who have worked with him. He has always credited his writers and directors, Salim–Javed, Manmohan Desai, Prakash Mehra, Yash Chopra and Ramesh Sippy. But it is also true that his co-stars had an undeniable role in his success”.

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The one reason his career hit a roadblock was Amitabh Bachchan. “My films flopped and I was at ground zero. I was as good as any of my contemporaries. Then, I had to fight the system. Remember, I came with a romantic film and the same year, there came a storm called Amitabh Bachchan as the angry young man in ‘Zanjeer’ and he changed the whole scenario. I was actually thrown into choppy waters and I had to keep my head above to survive. Nobody wanted to see a romantic film. I was struggling all my life after that. All of my 25 years I have always battled and faced these kinds of heroes.”

“Unlike with Jeetendra, Amitabh and I didn’t start off on the best of terms. Initially we had a rather uncomfortable, blow hot, blow cold relationship. I was immature and defiant back in the 1970s. He was ten years older than me but like an idiot I used to call him Amitabh, never Amit-ji. Thankfully, I was able to overcome my differences and replace them with a warm camaraderie, which later turned into a family relationship (his daughter Shweta is married to my nephew Nikhil, Ritu’s son).During the making of Kabhi Kabhie, there was every indication of a cold war between us. He never spoke to me and I didn’t speak to him”.

I think that Amitabh was sulking because I had won the best actor award for Bobby, given by the leading film magazine of the era. I am sure he felt the award was rightfully his for Zanjeer, which released the same year. I am ashamed to say it, but I actually ‘bought’ that award. I was so naïve. There was this PRO, Taraknath Gandhi, who said to me, ‘Sir, tees hazaar de do,toh aap ko main award dila doonga.’ I am not the manipulative sort but I admit that I gave him the money without thinking. My secretary, Ghanshyam, also said, ‘Sir, dete hain, mil jayega award, isme kya hai.’ Amitabh probably learnt from someone that I had paid for the award.

Recalling the ’70s and 80s era, the 64-year-old actor said Bachchan was an epitome of great acting during their time and he and his other co-stars were all just trying hard to follow in his footsteps. “Amitabh Bachchan is the greatest actor that we have in the country. He changed the whole trend of early 70s. Action era started with him. There were a lot of actors who became jobless then,” Kapoor said.