Khullam Khulla, the biography of Rishi Kapoor (co-authored by Rishi and a senior journalist Meena Iyer) has many startling revelations from the industry and lives up to its name, to an extent. It’s no secret that celebrities use writing (auto)biographies as a PR exercise and Khullam Khulla is no different. Rishi Kapoor has used his biography as a tool to quash the rumours about his affairs and denying his grudge against many of his colleagues who became more successful than him in the early 90s. After Rishi’s demise, the biography is really climbing up the charts on Amazon Kindle’s list.
Unfortunately, they both died in a day’s gap and I just wanted to mention how Rishi Kapoor wrote a few words for Irrfan Khan admiringly in his book for his exceptional work in India and abroad. In the book that came out in 2017, Rishi states how the lines between the star and an actor are blurring and gave Irrfan’s example in this context. He says-
“Today, the lines between a star and an actor are also blurring. An actor can also become a star. Irrfan Khan who spent so many years on television is a star at the age of forty-seven. Not only is he doing exceptionally well in India, but he’s feted and felicitated in the west too. There were the rare exceptions earlier, such as Amrish Puri, who found stardom when he was fifty years old. Today Irrfan shares honours with the glamorous young crop of actors at an award night. That’s finding stardom. What else does stardom mean? Throwing your weight around like Rajesh Khanna did? Whatever the definition of stardom, I’ve always believed that if an actor works hard, he will earn it.”
Khullam Khulla might not give you what you are looking for in terms of Rishi’s life and controversies, but it does give you titbits on Raj Kapoor, Prithviraj and Rishi’s brothers. For that itself, you should give it a read.- https://amzn.to/2WaJUrP
