'I Need to Talk to you. And then, He Choked up': Rishi Kapoor's Friend Recalls the Chilling Call he Received from him before Flying to New York

Late Bollywood actor Rishi Kapoor, who died earlier this month after a long battle with cancer, choked when he informed friend and distributor Raj Bansal about his diagnosis over a call in 2018, Raj has revealed.

Speaking with Writersball, Raj said, “His (Rishi) cancer was detected in 2018. No one knew about it, except for the family. It was September 2018. He was to fly to the US for treatment that evening. He rang me up the same day. He used to fondly call me ‘Thakur’. I took the call and greeted him. He said, ‘Thakur tere se baat karni hai (I need to talk to you)’. And then, he choked up. I sensed something was not right. Then he told me, ‘Thakur paanch minute mein call karna (Call me in five minutes)’. I waited for exactly five minutes and called back. I asked him, ‘Chintu sab theek toh hai (Is everything alright)?’ He was choking again. ‘Thakur, achchhi khabar nahin hai (I don’t have good news). I have been diagnosed with cancer. I’m flying to New York for treatment this evening,’ he told me.”

Raj had been friends with Rishi for almost three decades. Asked if Rishi was admitted to the hospital a day before he died on April 30, Raj further told the entertainment website, “No. The reports circulating around are factually incorrect. He was admitted some days back. His hospitalisation itself was a surprise to me. We had spoken only two days before that and he was taking a walk outside his flat. I remember telling him to go back inside. He told me, ‘Yaar Raju ab Bungalow pe renovation ka kaam chal raha hai. Flat mein shift kara diya hai. Thodi fresh hawa lene aya tha (Our bungalow in Mumbai is being renovated. We have shifted to a flat. I had come out for fresh air.)’ We had spoken about our future, the lockdown and corona. We spoke for more than half an hour and, normally, both of us don’t speak over the phone for so long. That’s why I refused to believe he is no more.”

Raj also remembered how Rishi would describe his initial career when he mostly played romantic heroes. “On more than one occasion he would tell me, ‘Hum koi actor thode hi hain. Humein toh bas pedon ke ird-gird naachne ke liye lete hain (I am hardly an actor. I am only cast to run around trees and dance).’”

Talking about the actor’s second innings, he said, “Once he moved out of that stereotype and started doing his own kind of films, he surprised everyone with the kind of roles he took up. That transition to being a character actor was a conscious decision on his part, and he was quite pleased with himself after that. Chintu called me after reading the script of Do Dooni Char, which by the way is an excellent movie. Excitedly, he told me, ‘I have read a new script and I’m planning to do the movie. I asked him if he had liked the script. He said he did and told me, ‘After this movie, you will be proud of your friend’.”

Soon after news about Rishi’s death surfaced, Raj had tweeted, “Tears roll down while I write. I have lost my dear friend who was like an elder brother to me. #RishiKapoor.”.

Rishi died at the age of 67 on April 30 after fighting leukaemia for two years. He had returned to India last year after spending around eleven months in the US where he was getting treated. His wife and actor Neetu Singh stayed by his side all along while kids Ranbir Kapoor and Riddhima kept visiting him as did many of his industry colleagues including Ranbir’s girlfriend Alia Bhatt.