Veteran actor Rishi Kapoor who passed away on April 30 this year had expressed his desire to star in a remake of a Gujarati film alongside his son Ranbir Kapoor. However, he succumbed to cancer weeks after talks had begun for him to appear in the remake of the Gujarati film Chaal Jeevi Laiye. Apparently, Rishi had loved the original film and even convinced his son to star in it with him. Rishi’s and Ranbir’s last film together was Besharam which was a critical and commercial failure.
An online portal quoted Ritesh Laalan, CEO of the production company behind Chaal Jeevi Laiye, “Yes, we were planning to cast Rishi sir and Ranbir Kapoor in the Hindi remake. We initiated talks with Rishi’s manager in March, just before the lockdown. But everything went on a backburner due to the pandemic. And then sadly, Rishi sir passed away.” He said that talks with Ranbir hadn’t started.
Talking about Ranbir and Rishi starring in the film, Ritesh said that the story would have resonated with the audience especially with Rishi on board as Chaal Jeevi Laiye is about a workaholic man who takes his terminally ill father on a vacation, to fulfil his dying wish. He said, “It would have been a great casting coup. Viewers would have surely connected with the casting and the storyline more so when they would have seen both of them playing father and son. Not just viewers, even Rishi sir and Ranbir would have also been able to relate with the storyline.”
Chaal Jeevi Laiye is the highest grossing Gujarati film ever with earnings of around Rs 52.14 crores and was directed by Vipul Mehta. The film stars Siddharth Randeria, Yash Soni and Aarohi Patel.
(Source: Bollywood Hungama)
