Amitabh Bachchan didn’t attend friend Mukri’s funeral, never called family: ‘Filmon ki dosti aisi hai’

3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jul 29, 2026 06:15 PM Amitabh Bachchan has been an actor in Hindi movies since the late 1960s, and over the last 57 years, he has worked with many talented actors across all ages but there were some actors, with whom he shared a great on-screen camaraderie and late actor Mukri was one of them. They worked together in films like Laawaris, Sharaabi, Coolie, among many others, yet upon Mukri’s passing in the year 2000, Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan did not attend the funeral. In a new interview, Mukri’s daughter Naseem Mukri, recalled the incident and shared that Rishi Kapoor came at 7 am, and was “crying like a ba” when he heard about Mukri’s death.
In a chat with Vickey Lalwani on his YouTube channel, when Naseem was asked if Amitabh maintained his friendship with Mukri’s family after his death, she said that this wasn’t the case. She also shared that he never even visited their home after Mukri died. She shared that back in Amitabh’s struggling days, when he stayed at Mehmood’s house with his younger brother Anwar, Amitabh would visit sometimes, but things changed in later years.
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‘Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan didn’t come for the funeral’
“Filmo ki dosti aisi hi hoti hai (That’s what friendship is like in the movies),” she said and added, “As long as you are a hit jodi, be it a heroine, comedian or a villain or anyone else, as long as you are making the movie a hit, until then, the friendship is great, but after that, if it’s not working, then e e. Then it’s, ‘Who are you?’” Amitabh and Mukri were a famous actor-comedian pair.
Naseem was then asked if Bachchan came for the burial. She said, “No.” And added, that Mukri also shared a bond with Jaya Bachchan as they worked together in one of her earlier films, Piya Ka Ghar. “Jaya Bachchan was great friends with my father because of Piya Ka Ghar. Back then, during outdoor shoots in villages, they would all stay together. But she also didn’t come. Didn’t even call. We didn’t even notice who all came,” she said.
‘Rishi Kapoor was crying like a ba’
Rishi Kapoor, however, learnt about Mukri’s death via television news at 2 am, and at 7 am, he was there to offer his condolences. “Rishi Kapoor came at 7 am. He saw it at 2 am on TV. It was broadcast immediately. At 7 am, the doorbell rang, we opened the door and he was there and he was crying like a ba. Because my father had worked a lot with Rishi,” she shared.
Rishi and Mukri had worked together in many films, one of them being Amar Akbar Anthony, where he played Neetu Kapoor’s on-screen father. “The song ‘Tayyab Ali’ worked because of Rishi and Mukri’s performance,” she said.Story continues below this ad
Mukri passed away in 2000 due to a heart attack in Mumbai. He was 78. He was best known for playing comic roles in films like Mother India, Bombay to Goa, among others.