Rajiv Kapoor, Yourger brother of Rishi Kapoor Passes away

Mumabi, Feb 9 Raza Murad has said that the late Rajiv Kapoor was lonely, but never bitter. Raza, speaking to reporters, said that destiny was never on Rajiv’s side.

Actor Raza Murad has said that destiny was never on Rajiv Kapoor’s side. Rajiv died of a cardiac arrest on Tuesday, at the age of 58. The son of late actor Raj Kapoor, Rajiv never achieved the career highs that many members of his illustrious family did.

Speaking to reporters ahead of his funeral, Raza reminisced about Rajiv, and how they used to be thick as thieves back in the day.

He said in Hindi, “This is a major loss for me. We go back a long way, back when he used to be an assistant director. He used to work like any other assistant, doing daily chores. He had no pretences about him, despite coming from such a privileged family. This is what Raj saab taught all his children, that they should first learn to live ordinary lives, before thinking of becoming stars.”

Asked if Rajiv struggled with loneliness, Raza said, “Yes. Definitely. You see, his films didn’t work. Prem Granth was a good film, but it didn’t work. His television series didn’t work. His marriage didn’t work. Destiny wasn’t on the side of Rajiv Kapoor. Worse actors than him have succeeded in this industry. I’ll say that there was loneliness, but never bitterness.”

In a 2016 interview, Rajiv admitted that 1985’s Ram Teri Ganga Maili remains his most well-known work. He starred in a string of flops after that.

Rajiv said that he was always compared to his uncle, Shammi Kapoor, because of their physical resemblance to each other, and that didn’t work in his favour. He told Cinestaan, “As far as my career is concerned, Ram Teri Ganga Maili is the best film I did. The other films didn’t do well, but not all were bad. The sad part was that everybody wanted to project me like Shammi Kapoor, because I looked like him.”