In his memoir(Khullam Khulla), the late Rishi Kapoor made one of Bollywood’s shocking revelations: he allegedly bought his first Filmfare Best Actor Award for Bobby (1973) for ₹30,000, at just 20 years old. Rishi never mentioned the man’s name; only that the fear that Amitabh Bachchan might win for Zanjeer drove him to procure the trophy. He later wrote about how the guilt of this act troubled him for many years. Rishi also believed that this incident had something to do with Amitabh being cold toward him in the early part. This scandal somewhat peeled the glamour off Bollywood’s most-coveted awards.
Rishi’s truthfulness did not stop at that. He recounted a meeting in Dubai with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in the late 1980s before the 1993 blasts. Over tea, Dawood casually spoke about armed robberies and murders and offered Rishi “anything he wanted,” a grim reminder of Bollywood’s underworld ties.
Additionally, the actor defended his father Raj Kapoor’s alleged affair with Vyjayanthimala, condemning the actress for denying it after his father’s demise. Rishi called her denial a “publicity stunt,” highlighting some of the still-open wounds in the Kapoor legacy.
The memoir went deeper into Rishi’s emotional vulnerabilities-from his first love, Yasmin Mehta, through marital tensions with Neetu Singh during his phase of creative downfall. Eventually, he admitted, depression and insecurity made him hard to live with. His fractious relationship with son Ranbir Kapoor also came in for scrutiny; he bemoaned Ranbir’s “lack of discipline” yet accepted that he himself was a hard taskmaster as a father.
From set crushes to rivalries, Rishi’s memoir stripped away the star facade and delivered a raw, human account of a man equally formed by regret and fame.
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