When Randhir Kapoor wished his daughters Kareena Kapoor-Karisma ‘adopted him as father’, called himself a ‘horrible husband’

There was a time when Randhir Kapoor claimed his daughter Kareena Kapoor doesn’t want to have kids. “Aaj kal ke bachchon ko kisi se advice nahi chahiye (Kids these days don’t want advice from anyone). As long as she is happy with her life, I am happy too,” the Bollywood veteran said in 2014.
Cut to 2022, and Kareena is enjoying a blissful family life with husband Saif Ali Khan and her two sons Taimur (2016) and Jeh (2021).

In an interview to Rediff, Randhir shared how he had to work hard to manage the expenses of his family — wife Babita and daughters Karisma and Kareena. “I wish I was young today. Aaj kal ke actors kitna saara paisa kamate hai (Today’s actors make a lot of money). We worked really hard to earn money. The tuition fees of my children, my electricity bills, Babita ke kharcha (wife Babita’s expenses), my scotch, was all paid from the money that I earned from acting in films.”
Randhir Kapoor with his daughters Kareena Kapoor and Karisma Kapoor. (Photo: Karisma Kapoor/Instagram)
Today, Randhir’s rapport with his daughters and son-in-law Saif Ali Khan is like a “normal family” and they do not talk about work at all. “We do not advise anyone about their careers. We laugh, crack jokes and pull each other’s leg and talk about the things that are happening in our lives.”
Randhir, despite being separated from wife Babita, has never shied away from talking about his personal life, raising two daughters and the respect he and Babita still hold for each other despite not being divorced. “Well, I still have just one wife and two daughters. Nothing around me has changed in all these years. The only thing that has is that I don’t live with them anymore. The girls are married and have their own homes. And Babita is in a happy space herself. She’s not got married again and nor does she intend to, neither do I. She continues to be my wife and I continue to be her incorrigible, horrible husband. So be it!” he told TOI in 2016.
Randhir Kapoor said his family never discusses work when they are together.
“My children are settled. In fact, both my daughters are wealthier than I am and I keep asking them to adopt me as their father, so that I can also be rich. I still meet Babita for dinner sometimes, we eat and laugh. That is the way we are,” he added.

Randhir Kapoor, who turns 75 today, might have a filmography boasting of memorable movies like Jeet, Raampur Ka Lakshma, Jawani Diwani, Hamrahi, Haath Ki Safai, Ponga Pandit, Kasme Vaade,, Mama Bhanja and Heeralal Pannalal, but Randhir’s lineage and surname has kept him in news more often during his last five decades in the industry.
Son of Bollywood icon Raj Kapoor, Randhir said his father was his best friend with whom he could talk about anything. “I could talk to him about my girlfriends and my affairs openly. He was non-interfering and never asked me how much money I was earning from a particular film, or what films I was working on,” he told Rediff.