Menu
Rishi Kapoor was ecstatic when he received the Best Actor in a negative role at the Zee Cine Awards for his work in Agneepath. This was his first role as a villain and the man gave out some very interesting anecdotes in his acceptance speech. He said,
“Life is really strange you know. I received an award today for a film which I had actually rejected. I had refused the role. Director Karan Malhotra and Producer Karan Johar persisted for over a month that I should accept this role, but I said main koi bhaav nahi kha raha hoon.. na hi main apni price badha raha hoon. I did not have the guts, I didn’t have the courage, I had no confidence to play a negative role. I told Karan, yaar zindagi bhar maine romantic gaane gaaye hain sweater pehan kar…I’m not cut out for the role of Rauf Lala.”
But lucky for Rishi Kapoor, both the Karan’s didn’t pay any heed to his words and were adamant on convincing the legendary actor for the role.
“I was extremely scared to do play the character of Rauf Lala because I thought if I don’t look convincing in the character then because of me the film might flop. I did not want to risk this kind of a project with me in it, so I said to Karan that I’ll not do this film. But Karan would not take ‘no’ for an answer. Both the Karan’s insisted and persisted. Finally I agreed for a screen test. Just imagine, main chaalis (40) saal se kaam kar raha hoon iss industry mein but kabhi zindagi mein kisi ko look test nahi diya maine. I gave them a look test and I said yaar bewkoof lagoonga kya kar rahe ho, it’s a suicidal mission! You can’t take me in this role, I will not be able to justice to it. But ladies and gentleman, today I want to say that hats off to the director and producer’s conviction in me. I think they took a huge risk by asking me to play the role. This trophy of mine in every sense of the word belongs to Karan Malhotra and to Karan Johar, nobody else but them.”
On being further prodded on who is his favorite villain, the stalwart said,
“I think everybody of my generation would agree with me.. its undoubtedly Pran Saab! Long live Pran Saab!! I think there was a time when mothers stopped naming their sons ‘Pran’ because they feared that they would turn out to be as villainous as the characters he played on screen.”
To catch such beautiful moments, tune into Zee TV for Zee Cine Awards, 2nd Feb, Saturday at 9pm. Start early and catch all the excitement on the Red Carpet at 8.30pm only on Zee TV!
