Dearth of lead actresses to cast opposite Rishi Kapoor in 70s & 80s led to his pairing with fresh faces 


Rishi Kapoor is the only lead actor to be paired with record 30 new heroines 


By Rajesh Ahuja 


He may have been among the top romantic heroes in the 70s and the 80s, amid the dominance of the angry young man Amitabh Bachchan,  but Rishi Kapoor also earned the distinction of the being the only lead hero to be paired with a record number of fresh heroines. 


After making a splash as a hot new young star after the super success of Raj Kapoor's Bobby,  Rishi Kapoor found himself faced with a new problem.  After his instant stardom with Bobby,  filmmakers of that time faced the problem of a Dearth of lead actresses to cast opposite Rishi Kapoor. 


Writing in his autobiography Khullam Khulla: Rishi Kapoor uncensored,  Rishi Kapoor said,''after a debut film that gave me instant stardom,  filmmakers found that there was a dearth of lead actresses to cast opposite a hot new star who was also very young. '' 


Reminiscing about his situation at that time,  Rishi Kapoor said, ''I was in a quandary.  Dimple had got married and opted out even before her first film was released. The others were all older than me and looked it too. Around the time I debuted,  Sharmila Tagore and Mumtaz at the top of their game. Obviously, I could not be paired with them. 


Hema Malini,  Zeenat Aman and Rekha had just begun to make their mark and again,  given the image that I had acquired after Bobby,  filmmakers did not think that I paired well with any of them.'' 


'There were only two bankable actresses,  Neetu Singh and Moushumi Chatterjee who did. But how many films could I do with just two of them! Out of sheer  necessity, filmmakers found a third option of constantly pairing me with fresh faces. 


In doing so, they made made me the only lead actor to have worked close to thirty new heroines, a record that is unbroken to this day, 'the late actor wrote in his autobiography. 


Dearth of lead actresses to cast opposite Rishi Kapoor in 70s and 80s led to his pairing with fresh faces 




After the super success of Bobby (1973), Rishi Kapoor did a series of films in the 70s and 80s featuring him opposite new heroines.  These include Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin(1977) where he was paired opposite newcomer Kajal Kiran;  Zamane Ko Dikhana Hai where he paired opposite the then upcoming heroine Padmini Kolhapure; Laila Majnu where he was paired opposite newcomer Ranjeeta Kaur; Karz (1980) where he was paired opposite Tina Munim; Naseeb (1981) where he starred opposite newcomer Kim: Sargam (1980) where he was cast opposite newcomer Jayaprada; Coolie (1983) where he was paired opposite Shoma Anand; Dosti Dushmani(1986) where he starred opposite Bhanupriya and Henna where he was cast opposite Pakistani actress Zeba Bakhtiyar.

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