After completing his studies in Mumbai and New York, Rishi Kapoor sent Ranbir back to the US, feeling he was too young to start his acting career.Ranbir enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute to learn method acting. However, his father gave him just enough money for two meals a day.
Sharing his experience with Nikhil Kamath on his podcast, Ranbir said, “By then, I was very eager to come back and start work. I felt like I had gotten the experience of America. It was not really the college experience but the exposure of talking to people from all over the world and living alone. My father had kept me on a very tight budget. Of course, when I say tight budget, I am still coming from a privileged background, but it was enough to have a McDonald’s dollar menu meal for lunch and dinner. So, it was like $2 for lunch and $2 for dinner. It was as strict as that, even though I come from a privileged background.”
Ranbir believes his father did this to keep him grounded and disciplined. “He never addressed this, but I think he wanted me to live like a student and not a superstar’s son. Maybe it was to teach the value of money.”
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Even after returning to Mumbai, Ranbir had to be frugal, as Rishi Kapoor stopped giving him pocket money. Additionally, when he started working with Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Rishi took away his car and made him travel by public transport.
“My father wanted to school me that this is not life, you are too moisturised, you need to see what hardship is,” said Ranbir.
During the interaction, Ranbir also shared that he never saw his father’s eye colour because he always talked to him with his head held down. “His temperament was so volatile that it always scared me. He was a short-tempered man but also a good man,” Ranbir said about Rishi Kapoor.
Rishi Kapoor passed away at the age of 67 on April 30, 2020, after a two-year battle with leukemia.
