Wish I could be friendlier with dad: Ranbir in foreword to Rishi Kapoor's autobiography

Rishi Kapoor, the middle son of Raj Kapoor, has revealed many hilarious and insightful anecdotes about his life and career in his autobiography with Meena Iyer, Khullam Khulla: Rishi Kapoor Uncensored. His wife, Neetu Kapoor, and son Ranbir both have contributed to the book. In fact, Ranbir has penned the foreword detailing his complicated relationship with his father.

He writes, “I am closer to my mother. I feel that Dad modelled his relationship with me on the one he shared with his own father. And it is true that I have never crossed a certain line with him. But there is no sense of loss or vacuum here. I do wish sometimes that I could be friendlier with him or even spend more time with him. Sometimes I wish I could just pick up the phone and ask him, ‘Dad, how are you doing?’ But we do not have that.”

Ranbir rues that the father-son bond is not closer. He is not friends with his dad and it has led to a realisation for him that he needs to have a better one with his own children, whenever he has them. However, he is not revealing any big rift between the two. That Ranbir has been in awe of and respects his father, is common knowledge for many.

Furthermore, Ranbir states, “I love my father dearly and have immense respect for him. I’m inspired by him and never want to let him down. I know he has only my best interests at heart. He also takes care of the financial side of my work. So we are more connected now. His confidence in me and my work makes me take pride in it. I persevere that much harder because of this. His belief and his encouragement are important to me.”

Interestingly, both father and son are quite different. Rishi is known to speak his mind too often and his Twitter handle, @chintskap, has been the source of both controversial and intriguing insights from the actor. Ranbir, on the other hand, likes to keep a private profile and stays away from social media.

On his father’s voluble Twitter-speak, the younger actor says in the book, “I do not have a take on his Twitter personality. All I can say is, so long as he is being honest and having fun, it’s his prerogative. Social media is something very personal. Of course, he gets himself into a spot sometimes with his frank speak, but I know he has no agenda and no hidden motive. My father is a straight arrow.”