Happy Birthday, Rishi Kapoor!

Chintu Ji! How can one forget the cute, chubby guy of ‘Mera Naam Joker', a character that fantisizes his teacher, played by Simi Garewal. The boy had already marked his space and with a hit like ‘Bobby', the industry opened its arms for the next big thing ‘Rishi Kapoor'.The song ‘Hum Tum Ek Kamre mein Band Ho', is still the biggest grosser of all time. The film was a debut for both Rishi and Dimple Kapadia.The actor, born on 4th September, 1952, to Raj Kapoor, was the 2nd most desirable actor after superstar Rajesh Khanna of those times. Rishi Kapoor was an instant hit among the youth. Many female fans wrote him letters and proposed him for marriage.All his life he played roles of romantic heroes. Most of them were opposite co-star Neetu Singh. Except in ‘Agneepath', 2012, where he played a negative role of ‘Rauf Lala' for the first time. Rishi Kapoor made his debut with ‘Mera Naam Joker' in 1970, while Neetu Singh made her debut with ‘Do Kaliyaan' in 1960.Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh were a couple that was a known fact in the Bollywood industry. Rishi belonged to a Punjabi family, while Neetu Singh belonged to a Sikh family. The couple too, like their elders, had to face opposition from both their families. The fact is that in most of her films Neetu Singh has starred opposite either husband Rishi Kapoor, or uncle Shashi Kapoor.Once Rishi Kapoor was gravely ill and was suffering from high fever, but still he went to Neetu's father and asked her hand in marriage. His effort and love didn't get unnoticed and the families gave in to the couple's wish and got them married in 1981. At the time of their marriage Rishi Kapoor was 29, while Neetu Singh was 21.The marriage of Rishi-Neetu was the most talked about affair across India. It is said that father-in-law Raj Kapoor got Pakistani singer, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan especially to perform for Neetu Singh's Sangeet ceremony. After performing for the entire night the singer was widely popularized in the industry as the new singing sensation.During the marriage preparations it is said neither Neetu nor Rishi were concerned about details as both were busy shooting for their respective films and the work was left for their families to finish.Both got married at the peak of her their career. Neetu Singh was the top actress that time and she left her career for the Kapoor Khandaan's tradition where daughters and daughter-in-laws never worked in Bollywood.However, she clearly rubbished such reports, saying “It was my personal choice. I want to be a housewife for Rishi.”Rishi -Neetu had a fall. While riding the ‘Ghodi', a tradition in Indian marriages, Rishi Kapoor fainted because he couldn't cope with such crowd around him. While Neetu Singh too fainted during the ‘Varmaala' rites, as she was wearing a heavy lehenga and the ambience made her feel exhausted.Krishna Raj Kapoor was very fond of favorite ‘bahu' Neetu. Neetu, even before her marriage used to visit her prospective mother-in-law often. It is also said that once Neetu Singh was finishing off a song sequence with Amitabh Bachchan in Kolkata, she was missing ‘Chintu' very much. On seeing her in an upset mood, Amitabh called the director and asked Neetu to immediatly go and meet Rishi Kapoor. Amitabh Bachchan finished the song with solo shots.Not only Krishna Raj Kapoor, Neetu was also very much close to her brother-in-law Rajiv Kapoor. It is said that Rajiv Kapoor was also her best friend and admirer.During her fights with Rishi Kapoor, Rajiv Kapoor would eveytime took sides of her favorite ‘Bhabhi'.Ask her about the most memorable moment with husband ‘Chintu', Neetu says she loves the moment when Rishi Kapoor had to dress up like a girl and dance along her in the movie, ‘Khel Khel Mein'. She envied him to be the cutest girl she ever saw.The couple are proud parents of Bollywood hottie Ranbir Kapoor, and Ridhima Kapoor Sahni. Their daughter Ridhima Kapoor is married to Bharat Sahni. The actor went on to give some all time Bollywood hits, Bobby (with Dimple Kapadia), Chandini (with Sridevi), Rafoo chakkar, and Khel Khel Mein (with wife Neetu singh), Amar Akbar Anthony (with Amitabh Bachchan), Karz (Tina Munim), Prem Rog (Padmini Kolhapure) etc.