When Rajiv Kapoor spoke about why his career never took off: 'They tried to project me like Shammi Kapoor'

In a 2016 interview, Rajiv Kapoor had spoken about why his career never took off, like those of his illustrious family members.

Rajiv Kapoor, who died of a cardiac arrest on Tuesday, once spoke about his career never quite taking off, like those of certain other members of his illustrious family. Rajiv was the son of late Raj Kapoor, and brother of the late Rishi Kapoor.

In Ram Teri Ganga Maili, Rajiv Kapoor appeared opposite Mandakini.

In a 2016 interview, he admitted that 1985's Ram Teri Ganga Maili remains his most well-known work. He starred in a string of flops after that.

Rajiv said that he was always compared to his uncle, Shammi Kapoor, because of their physical resemblance to each other. He told Cinestaan, "As far as my career is concerned, Ram Teri Ganga Maili is the best film I did. The other films didn’t do well, but not all were bad. The sad part was that everybody wanted to project me like Shammi Kapoor, because I looked like him."

He continued, "To summarise in simple language – hit is fit. If your movies did well things would be on a different tangent. I did some nice films which had good music, but not many did well."

After Ram Teri Ganga Maili, Rajiv appeared in films such as Aasmaan (1984), Zabardast (1985), Lover Boy (1985) and Hum To Chale Pardes (1988), with his last film being Zimmedaar in 1990. Post that, he turned to direction and production.

After Rajiv's death, Neetu Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, and Riddhima Kapoor Sahni posted tributes on social media. Kareena shared a picture of Rajiv with his father Raj and brothers -- Rishi and Randhir. "Broken but strong," she wrote.

Last year in April, the Kapoor family had lost Rishi. He died on April 30 after a two-year battle against cancer. Rajiv's sister, Ritu Nanda, died in January 2020.

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