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Superstar Shah Rukh Khan is fondly dubbed 'Bollywood's King of Romance.' But before him, another superstar enjoyed the stardom and held the tag. The first name that comes to mind is Evergreen Star Dev Anand and the second is Superstar Rajesh Khanna. But no, none of the duo was called the 'King of Romance'. However, all of them share a common thing of carrying a romantic image and girls/women were extremely crazy for them. The actor we are talking about is none other than Rishi Kapoor.
Raj Kapoor's son Rishi debuted as a child artist in Mera Naam Joker and went on to bag a National Award for Best Child Artist. Later on, in 1973, he made his debut in Bobby as the lead alongside Dimple Kapadia.
Between 1973 and 2000, he starred in around 92 romantic films. Interestingly, most of his movies were top-grossers of the time. Be it Kabhi Kabhie, Laila Majnu, Amar Akbar Anthony, Prem Rog, Naseeb, Chandni or Bol Radha Bol, even though he had many multi-starrer flicks, Chintu held a place of his own.
While he had tough competition from Amitabh Bachchan, Jeetendra, and Mithun Chakraborty, he successfully established himself as a superstar with back-to-back hits. He won the hearts of moviegoers with his charm and stellar performance and romantic image. His stardom was such that actresses were eager to work with him. For his flourishing stardom, almost 20 actresses debuted with him at the time. The list includes Dimple Kapadia, Jaya Prada, Zeba Bakhtiar, Shoma Anand, Bhavana Bhatt, Radhika, and Ranjeeta Kaur.
Well, Chintu's versatility also won him a huge fanbase. Be it 102 Not Out's Babulal Vakharia, Student of The Year's Yoginder Vashisht, Agneepath's Rauf Lala or Housefull 2's Chintu Kapoor, Rishi showcased his versatility in different genres. He was last seen in 2022's Sharmaji Namkeen. He passed away at the age of 67 from a recurrence of Leukemia during the shooting of the movie.
Now, his rich legacy is being carried forward by his son Ranbir Kapoor, who is currently one of Bollywood's busiest actors.
