Rishi Kapoor Looked Forward To Facing The Camera Again Post His Treatment: Don’t Know If My Work Will Be Welcome

Rishi Kapoor is gone. The heartthrob of Bollywood who dedicatedly entertained the nation for over 45 years died after losing his battle against leukemia on April 30. His passing was truly unexpected and a heartbreaking shocker for millions who had found some respite in the news few months ago that the actor was declared cancer free.

What one can tell is that despite two years of battling cancer Rishi Kapoor did not lose his hope to live and had also made plans to get back on movie sets as soon as he was done with his treatment. Rishi returned to India after his yearlong treatment in New York  in 2019 and ever honest as he was the actor freely spoke about his fears of whether he would be accepted by the audiences as he returned to movies.

In an interview with Hindustan Times back in August 2019 the actor said, “I miss working more than ever now. I’ve never had such a big break in my life and I’ve been working for 45 years. By the time I get back, it will be 11 months and it has been very long. But in a way, I feel very fresh and geared up to do any kind of work. My batteries are all charged and I’m looking forward to facing the camera. I just hope I haven’t forgotten acting. Right now, I don’t know if my work will be welcomed or if people are going to trash me. When I was going through treatment, I had a few blood transfusions. And I told Neetu that I hope with the new blood, I haven’t forgotten acting.”

His fears were confirmed by his son Ranbir Kapoor when he dedicated his win at the Zee Cine Awards 2019 to his father and said that they often talked about his insecurities and that he worried if he will be offered films after his treatment or if he will be able to act in movies.

Well, Rishi Kapoor did get film offers two of which he also signed including a project with Deepika Padukone which was remake of Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro starrer The Intern and was in the midst of shooting the film Sharmaji Namkeen with Juhi Chawla in January.

Rishi Kapoor had an infection February when he was in Delhi to attend a wedding and his cancer relapsed and was once again admitted to the hospital in April after he complained of breathlessness but couldn’t recover.

It gives us some solace to think that he passed knowing that there was always films and film offers for him to work on but sadly for his fans they’d never get to see the films he so dedicatedly signed to entertained us even in difficult times.