Before 102 Not Out, Rishi Kapoor on working with Amitabh Bachchan in their five previous films

Umesh Shukla’s 102 Not Out marks the sixth big screen collaboration of Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor — 25 years after Ajooba.

Read on Firstpost — 102 Not Out movie review: This Amitabh Bachchan, Rishi Kapoor-starrer is loud, repetitive but endearing

Here’s a look at the five films the actors have worked on together, drawn from Rishi Kapoor’s own recollections in his autobiography, Khullam Khulla:

Kabhi Kabhie

Kabhi Kabhie was a film that Rishi Kapoor rejected when Yash Chopra first offered it. It was only because Barood director Pramod Chakraborty allowed Rishi to take a break from the film’s Paris schedule and come to India that the actor could join the Kabhi Kabhie cast.  During this break, Rishi had travelled to Delhi for a cricket match, where both Shashi Kapoor and Yash Chopra sprung a surprise meeting with him. Rishi couldn’t say no after Shashi Kapoor’s insistence, and signed the film.

In his memoir Khullam Khulla, Rishi speaks of an ‘unspoken undercurrent of tension’ between co-star Amitabh Bachchan and himself. Rishi writes: ‘There was every indication of cold war between us, he never spoke to me and I didn’t speak to him’, holding his own immature and defiant attitude at fault. Rishi felt the tension was due to his winning the Best Actor Filmfare Award for Bobby while Amitabh’s performance in Zanjeer — the more competent one — was ignored.

Amar Akbar Anthony

It was during the making of Amar Akbar Anthony that Rishi and Amitabh began to develop a friendlier equation. In Khullam Kulla, Rishi describes their camaraderie as ‘easygoing’ — in fact, they’d team up to prank their co-actor Pran. Rishi feels it was the bonhomie between their onscreen characters that spilled over into real life too. And working on a Manmohan Desai film — where logic had no part to play in the proceedings, and outrageous antics were the norm — also helped in forging a bond.

Naseeb

Naseeb was the third film that cast Rishi Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan together, as brothers. At the time that Naseeb was shot, Rishi candidly admits that eh was at his lowest — his career wasn’t going great guns and he suffered from depression. Rishi failed to turn up for the last day’s shoot, but the Naseeb team was so considerate, they waited for him to recover. It was only after a prolonged delay that Manmohan Desai finally summoned Rishi to the sets, to wrap up the shoot. Amitabh Bachchan confessed to Rishi that he too had been in a similar situation a few years ago. By then, all traces of animosity between the two stars had disappeared and the beginnings of a friendship were laid.

Coolie

Coolie required Rishi and Amitabh to spend a protracted period of time away from home, as the shoot took place in (then) Bangalore. Rishi recounts the day Bachchan met with his life-threatening injury: both actors had been filming at different locations, but Bachchan had visited Rishi’s set in the morning and asked about the safety precautions for the stunt sequences the latter was to perform. Rishi reassured him that everything had been satisfactorily arranged — then sustained a few cuts and scrapes on his hands, face while performing the stunts. Bachchan chided Rishi for his carelessness. It was later that same day that Bachchan was grievously hurt — even though the full extent of his injuries wouldn’t become evident until a few hours later.

Ajooba

Ajooba has strangely been overlooked by Rishi Kapoor in his memoir, and while Bachchan reminisced fondly about the movie in a blog post, he didn’t mention his co-star. Instead, the superstar wrote of how Shashi Kapoor (producer, director) would carry a stick around to discipline the crew. One assumes that the Rishi Kapoor-Amitabh Bachchan friendship only deepened further during this time.

Will the stars reunite for a seventh project? We certainly hope so.