Rishi Kapoor’s son from Sharmaji Namkeen, Taaruk Raina: ‘Unki daat mein bohot pyar tha’

Taaruk Raina, the actor who played the younger son of Rishi Kapoor’s character in Sharmaji Namkeen, remembered his “best co-star”. Raina, who will next be seen in Mismatched Season 2, recalled when the veteran actor’s health started deteriorating, and how the film’s set coped with his death.
Excerpts from the interview:
Q) What was it like to finally watch Sharmaji Namkeen?
I never thought the movie would come out. The film has been through so many obstacles over the years, whether it is losing Rishi ji, or the pandemic. We stopped and started the film so many times. Even with half the problems that this film has faced, it is enough for it to be shelved, but this one finished and released. We waited for the film for so long, it is unbelievable that the film is out and that people have showered their love on it.

Q) What are your memories of working with Rishi Kapoor?
He was very strict. We took time to warm up to him. Actually, he warmed up to us. We had formed a very special, strange kind of friendship. The tree of us; me, Suhail (Nayyar) and Rishi ji were spending so much time together, it was pretty much the tree of us the whole time, so he also did not have the choice but be friends with us. Over time, the guard came down and we discovered that he might be strict, but he is such a legendary performer, such an experienced person. He was so full of life and childlike. He was the happiest person on set. It was a great learning experience working with him. He has a switch-on switch-off quality about him, as soon as the camera starts rolling, he is a different person, and I think that only comes with experience. Looking at actors like him I realised what level people are at, where they reach with experience and how I have a long way to go.
He just used to come on set, and flow into his character, I have never seen any other actor do that. I don’t know how he did it. He was perfect in every single take. He knew what to do even before anybody told me. He might be talking about food at a restaurant five seconds before the director says ‘action’ and then he was a completely different person instantly.

Q) It is rumoured that Rishi Kapoor would scold everyone on set.
All of us have been scolded him. But ‘unki daat mein bohot pyar tha’. He would get angry or upset, scold us and then forget. He wouldn’t keep it within him, he didn’t have vices. I think he would scold people to keep them on their toes, because otherwise he was very fun loving and full of love person. He would scold us, all of us have had their turns, but after 10 minutes we would eat together and laugh. His love for food was intense. We had realised that whatever we want to discuss with him, we would first start with a topic on food. He just knew so much about food, he loved food, I’ve never seen a foodie like him. The environment on set was all good, we were eating all the time, sample food that’s being shot. It was just all about food. I think that also kept him very happy on set. People have told me that he’s never had so much fun on set before, but here he was happy till his last day on set. He enjoyed doing this film so much, and I think food was a major contributing factor in that.

Q) How did the set cope with Rishi Kapoor’s death?
When his health started getting bad we stopped shoot. Few days later we got to know, and it was heartbreaking, we had spent so much time with him. We used to have so much fun and had such beautiful conversations. We had spent so much time around him. The set becomes family, his going felt like a personal loss, it was the worst feeling. Everyone was almost in denial. Even if his health was bad on a day, he would never show it. He was working at his 100% all the time. One would never know what he was going through. His death was absolutely unprecedented and very hard on the whole team.

When something like this happens, you start to lose hope and your confidence starts going down. He was like an anchor that we had. Hats off to Paresh (Rawal) ji for making this move and honouring him agreeing to finish the film for Rishi ji. I think that was a massive decision, not easy to do, to step into another actor’s shoes to finish a half shot film.

Q) Do you remember your last scene with Rishi Kapoor?
We shot with Rishi ji over a month. I am losing count of how many days we shot together. The last day of shooting with him was in a car, in winter, when it was very cold and in between shots we were watching a cricket match.
My last conversation with him, I still remember, he told Suhail and me to share our numbers with him so he can refer our names to filmmakers who ask for good actors. He said, ‘I’d like to give your numbers’. Lening to this, Suhail and I were stunned, just to hear him say that we are good actors. We didn’t know what to say, how to thank him. We felt grateful but we were almost shivering.
We had a strong, strange kind of relationship. I was Rishi ji’s technical help, if his WhatsApp wasn’t working, or if the font was too small on his phone. I used to fix that for him. These are the last memories of the legend that I’ll always cherish.