Ranbir Kapoor’s Troubled Relations With His Father Sorted Before Death

Ranbir Kapoor and his father, the late Rishi Kapoor shared a turbulent relationship…Or maybe  turbulent is  too animated a  word to describe their frozen relationship. During the making of Ranbir’s first film Saawariya he often shared vivid glimpses  of his  uneasy relationship with his father with me.

“We don’t even make eye contact.We hardly  speak  to each other. And  I can’t  look at him when  we speak.” he told me.

This father-son equation gradually changed over  the years. Ranbir tried to  walk towards  his  father  so that they  could meet on a  middle ground

Rishi Kapoor was also troubled  about  the lack of communication with his only son. He once told me that he shared a far  more comfortable  relationship with his daughter Riddhima. “But with Ranbir….I don’t know. He shares everything  with his  mother,not me.We’ve a very formal relationship. And that’s  the  way  it should be. Even I was formal with my father and  would not  like it to otherwise.”

Even  while they   remained  distant  from one another Rishi Kapoor was deeply concerned  about his son’s career. Like  any proud  father he  applauded Ranbir’s performance and mourned  when Ranbir’s films  didn’t do well. In an interview to me  Rishi had slammed two directors,   coincidentally  brothers, who had  given the two biggest flops in Ranbir’s career.Rishi  was livid. “How dare  they pull this  bakwas  on my son’s career?” he had fumed.

The repairing  of  the relationship  continued .Ranbir’s equation with his father  changed completely  after  Rishi Kapoor fell ill. The  health crisis brought  the  two closer than ever before. I believe Ranbir’s  girlfriend Alia Bhatt played a big hand in bridging the  gap between  the estranged father-son pair.

In his  final years Rishi Kapoor had come to be emotionally  dependent on his son. Ranbir’s locked-down  relationship with his  father had  dissolved into something far more emotional and nurturing. Rishi’s end has shattered Ranbir.  He has never been so  shaken  by any death in the family. Not his Naani (mom Neetu Kapoor’s mother)  and Daadi(Rishi mother).

I  remember  after his Naani died Ranbir told me he felt  nothing, although her room in the Kapoor’s residence  was  opposite Ranbir’s and she was  constantly  in and out  of his  room.

“I am shocked myself.  But I don’t feel anything,” Ranbir had blurted  out to me when his Naani passed  away.This time,after his father’s  death, I am sure he’s shocked by how much he feels.