Chintuji's first love story to be adapted as a musical..

The first love story from the actor's pre-Bobby days, which didn't culminate in a happy ending, is being adapted by Khalid Mohamed as a musical stage production.

Khalid Mohamed's Faction, a compilation of 22 by-invitation short stories by Bollywood's big names, ranging from filmmakers like Shyam Benegal, Sai Paranjpye, Ashutosh Gowariker, Karan Johar and Basu Chatterjee to A-list actors like Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Om Puri, Sonam Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor, released in 2014. The one by Rishi about an unrequited romance struck a chord and both the actor and the fi lmmaker-authorplaywright-critic agreed that Love in the Time of Telegrams would make for a dramatic stage production.

"I started developing the story into a script and narrated it to Rishi. He kept adding his inputs and soon we had Rishi, a play in two acts, adapted by me from a love story by Rishi Kapoor," informs Khalid, who still has to finesse the finale with the actor. "I went on the Kapoor & Sons location in Coonoor but the prosthetic make-up was too intricate for him to concentrate on anything else."

That Rishi is still keen on the play is evident from the fact that in response to Khalid's congratulations on his autobiography, Khullam Khulla, he tweeted back, "Our stage production of "Rishi" based on an incident of mine, next stop Khalid."

The reason the romantic musical, which includes a medley of Rishi-Neetu Singh's chartbusters and an Elvis Presley song from an evening party, hasn't happened yet is because the budget offered by NCPA which wanted to produce it, was an insufficient Rs 15 lakh, according to its director. "I don't want to disappoint Rishi. I'd rather not make it than do something tacky. We need at least double the budget," asserts Khalid who's encouraged by the fact that a quite few backers have come forward to revive the project and even his team of actors (Amol Parasher as the young Rishi, Amit Phalke as his older avatar, Nishi Doshi as Neetu Singh, Danesh as Rishi's secretary Ghanshyam) are still as enthusiastic.

For those who haven't read the story, it is rooted in the '70s, before Bobby made Rishi an overnight star. The cherubic boy from a film family in suburban Chembur fell in love with a Parsi girl from SoBo. "Her aristocratic family was not exactly pleased but the girl helped groom him for his screen debut, placing him on a diet and designing trendy costumes for him, including the iconic purple scarf," says Khalid.

The love story blossomed despite her family's objections. Then, a film magazine reported that Rishi was seeing his Bobby co-star Dimple Kapadia. That upset his beloved but before he could appease her, the actor had to leave town for an outdoor shoot of Zehreela Insaan. "Those were the days of trunk calls that took hours to get through. So, he started writing her lengthy telegrams professing his love which his secretary, Ghanshyam, would send from the nearest post office. She never replied even after he roped in Neetu Singh to play Cupid. On his return to Mumbai, Rishi ran into her at the newly-launched rooftop restaurant of the Taj Mahal Hotel where she was with another guy. That drove Rishi crazy. He got tipsy beyond control and got into a brawl with the other' man even as Ghanshyam threatened to buy the Taj right there and then," narrates Khalid.

That was their last meeting. Rishi fell in love with Neetu and eventually married her. The Parsi girl settled down in London where she died years later of cancer. After she was gone, her mother met Rishi and confessed that she had not given any of the impassioned telegrams to her daughter, not wanting to encourage the romance. The girl died without knowing how much he loved her.

"As long as the girl's name is not mentioned and there is no direct reference to her family, no one has any objections to the love story being played out on another platform," says Khalid.

Could the 100-odd-minute play turn into a film with Rishi playing himself in a cameo? "Well, movies have come out of stage productions, so we can't say how Rishi will play out. But there's no possibility of Rishi Kapoor playing a role except of course as the writer of the original story," Khalid signs off.