Rishi Kapoor gives us better reasons to follow him on Twitter than being Ranbir's dad
Peeved by fans of his son, Ranbir Kapoor, who would inundate his Twitter timeline by dropping messages for junior, Rishi Kapoor put up a tweet yesterday, saying that he wasn't Ranbir's mailbox. In the "regular" world, a father telling people not to ask him about his son wouldn't make news, but this being Rishi Kapoor's tweet not only attracted enough traction, but also ended up being debated, like most things associated with celebrities in India. The immediate access that social media offers and the common platform that it gives the stars and fans to interact upon is something many are still coming to terms with.
— rishi kapoor (@chintskap) April 21, 2015Another thing. I am Not and repeat NOT Ranbirs Post Box that you can drop messages or post them. Thank you,I remain yours truly-Rishi Kapoor
— rishi kapoor (@chintskap) April 21, 2015Twitter is famous for making celebrities out of unknowns and, at the same time, notorious for bringing out the unknown sides of celebrities.
While most celebs have taken to Twitter thinking of it as a hybrid of the must-keep-up-with-the-times-PR activity and a one-way dissertation, very few appear to truly enjoy it. Rishi Kapoor is amongst the handful who seem to be relishing Twitter and his tweet asking his son's fans to stop treating him like a courier service is vintage Kapoor. Those who know him, or at least know of him, would know that Rishi Kapoor rarely minces his words and largely likes to keep it straight. If Kapoor could tell a fearless director, who tried buttering Papa enough to tell Ranbir to charge less than market price for a project, to shut up and stop haggling as if it were a "kirane ki dukaan (grocery store)", then putting up a picture of a cat holding a placard is hardly shocking. Notorious for his wry sense of humour and impeccable timing, Kapoor isn't one who would change for the sake of the environment, and as in real life his tweets, too, reflect the quirky icon. Perhaps, this is the reason that he left Twitter after initially joining it, but since his return after nearly five years, Kapoor has amassed quite a fan following on the micro-blogging site.
Most Bollywood stars still continue to live in the adulatory universe that exists around them. In fact, for them the sense of equality on social media is almost unnerving at times. Maybe that is why many still look at it as a pre-release publicity platform where the PR machinery tries to attach them to any hot issue of the day, or something they can be best identified with. For all purposes, the intent behind such association (Rang De Basanti with Narmada Bachao Andolan or Deepika Padukone with #VogueEmpower) might be genuine, but the end result often seems to misfire.
Used to being idolised, some of them simply can't seem to handle the accessibility the fans enjoy via Twitter and take a while to get used to the interaction. To add to it, in cultures such as ours, we sometimes don't take no for answer and take it for granted that any proud father would but feel obligated to convey wishes for his son.
One of the best celeb father-son stories that every film aficionado loves to use as a yardstick is SD Burman's joy at being called RD Burman's father. This writer once wanted to convey birthday wishes to Suresh Oberoi and assumed that tweeting to his son, Vivek, would warrant a reply or at least an acknowledgment, but nothing came off it. It was soon understood that a random stroll across The Bombay Presidency Golf Club might offer a higher probability of meeting papa Oberoi than sonny. One can understand Rishi Kapoor's annoyance at constantly being accosted for Ranbir. Like his Twitter bio suggests, "Son of a famous Father, Father of a famous Son. That leaves me no where!", Kapoor would have spent a lifetime answering questions about his legendary father, then himself, and his uncles and the ever-growing list now includes his son, and well… ahem... probably a certain heroine too, but let that be.
Thankfully, there wasn't any Twitter when Rishi Kapoor was his son's age because imagine what his more illustrious father, Raj Kapoor, would have done. In Nasreen Munni Kabir's book Conversations with Waheeda Rehman, the actress recounts how during the making of Teesri Kasam, a crowd had gathered around the train in which the crew was travelling and refused to budge till the "heroine" gave a darshan. After hours of an impasse, Rehman wanted to go out and get it over with, but Raj Kapoor would have none of it as no one could look at "his" heroine. Had it not been for Waheeda and a few others who pinned him down, the impassioned showman would have attacked the mob.
Sometimes followers happily stretch the idea of freedom to express when it comes to a star's handle, but at such times there's the inimitable Rishi Kapoor. Here's looking forward to some more unassailable gems from Chintuji!