Karan Johar mourns the tragic loss of Rishi Kapoor, says "a piece of my growing years has been snatched away"

Indian cinema lost another icon today. Earlier this morning, Rishi Kapoor breathed his last after his long battle with Leukaemia. The actor was survived by his wife Neetu Kapoor and two kids - Ranbir Kapoor and Riddhima Kapoor Sahni.

As tributes have started pouring in, filmmaker Karan Johar reminisced about the time he first met Rishi Kapoor on the sets of his father's film Duniya and how he was moved to years when he directed him Student Of The Year. "I was 7 years old and overheard that my parents were invited to see a preview of “Duniya meri Jeb mein”...it starred my favourite Rishi Kapoor...it was school night and my very particular mother refused to let me come with her....I threw such a tantrum because i couldn’t bare the fact that I was being disallowed from seeing a Chintu kapoor film...the parents finally succumbed...i went ....with stars in my eyes...like i had every time I saw him on celluloid...he was my HERO! The very handsome, the exceptionally charming, the eternally Romantic RISHI KAPOOR...my childhood was dedicated to watching him sing his songs with abandon, wearing his printed sweaters and dancing in my bedroom.....doing the dafliwalle routine with a dinner plate in front of my school friends...and finally nearly fainting when I met him for the first time in Cochin on the sets of my fathers film DUNIYA...I looked at him like he was a monument that I wanted to keep marvelling at," he wrote on Instagram.

"When i directed him in SOTY i shed a tear silently after he gave his first shot ... a major childhood dream was actualised ....today i feel like an irreplaceable void has crept into my existence...a piece of my growing years has been snatched away....i am honoured to love him...to know him...to have a drink and reminisce with him....I still will .. how can the romance of Indian Cinema ever leave us? Never. Dard -e dil....but this legendary legacy will live on! I LOVE YOU RISHI KAPOOR!❤️❤️❤️," he signed off.

Rishi Kapoor starred as the Dean of the college in Student of The Year.

 

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I was 7 years old and overheard that my parents were invited to see a preview of “Duniya meri Jeb mein”...it starred my favourite Rishi kapoor...it was school night and my very particular mother refused to let me come with her....I threw such a tantrum because i couldn’t bear the fact that I was being disallowed from seeing a Chintu kapoor film...the parents finally succumbed...i went ....with stars in my eyes...like i had every time I saw him on celluloid...he was my HERO! The very handsome,the exceptionally charming,the eternally Romantic RISHI KAPOOR...my childhood was dedicated to watching him sing his songs with abandon, wearing his printed sweaters and dancing in my bedroom.....doing the dafliwalle routine with a dinner plate in front of my school friends...and finally nearly fainting when I met him for the first time in Cochin on the sets of my fathers film DUNIYA...I looked at him like he was a monument that I wanted to keep marvelling at....when i directed him in SOTY i shed a tear silently after he gave his first shot ... a major childhood dream was actualised ....today i feel like an irreplaceable void has crept into my existence...a piece of my growing years has been snatched away....i am honoured to love him...to know him...to have a drink and reminisce with him....I still will .. how can the romance of Indian Cinema ever leave us? Never. Dard -e dil....but this legendary legacy will live on! I LOVE YOU RISHI KAPOOR!❤️❤️❤️

A post shared by Karan Johar (@karanjohar) on Apr 29, 2020 at 11:14pm PDT

ALSO READ: Rishi Kapoor on his support system Neetu Kapoor – “We were made for each other”