Late actor Rishi Kapoor and actress Neetu Kapoor was one of the most beloved couples. The couple got married in 1980, when Rishi was 28 and Neetu was just 22. Although both were at the peak of their careers, Neetu took a break from films after marriage to focus on family life. They were together for four decades until Rishi’s death in 2020. In a recent interview, Neetu opened up about the dynamics of their marriage, revealing that despite her laid-back nature, Rishi was the one person she constantly fought with. He said in an interview Soha Ali Khan on his podcast where he appeared with his daughter Riddhima Kapoor Sahni“I used to fight only with my husband. My husband and I used to fight for months,” she said.Describing Rishi as a “strong mind”, Neetu shared that disagreements between them often turned into long silences as she did not easily hear his point of view. As a result, he would resort to giving the cold shoulder until he finally struck up a conversation. “I was going into this cold war and the cold war could go on for a month, six months. I wasn’t going to lean in, ‘What’s your problem?’ until he didn’t ask me. And he would do that,” he recalled with a smile. Neetu added that during these stages Rishi would reach out to their children, actors Ranbir Kapoor and Riddhima Kapoor Sahni, to understand her mood and what was troubling her.“And then he would say ‘Acha bata yaar, kya hai? What is your problem? Let’s sort it out.’ I would say, now you come to me, now you listen to me. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have listened,” he said.She also recalled her mother-in-law joking about their long silences. “So when I would tell people I’ve been married 30 or 40 years, my mother-in-law would say, ‘You’ve only been married 20 years because you haven’t talked in 10 years,'” she shared.Neetu further revealed that after each reconciliation, she would encourage Rishi to follow a healthier lifestyle, including dieting and exercise, and would comply briefly before reverting to his old habits. “He would do anything because he wanted to be a good boy, because after 6 months it was fixed. But then again, she would go back to her old ways,” he said, adding that the older generation of the Kapoor family never really believed in fitness routines or diets.Reflecting on their relationship, Neetu shared that she met Rishi when she was just 14 or 15 and basically grew up with him. She admitted that she felt scared because it introduced her to a world she had never experienced before.“I was involved with him when I was 14-15 years old, so I grew up with him. He took me out, he showed me the world. He would take me to discos. He taught me how to drink wine and everything. I didn’t see the world. Maybe I was very scared and I would always try to make him happy,” he said.Neetu also revealed how emotionally invested she was in Rishi’s career. Whenever any of his films underperformed, he prayed, fasted and visited religious places hoping for its success as he could not bear to see them upset.“When his films didn’t work, I used to do all these fasts, go to temples, gurudwaras and churches. I don’t know how many novenas I had to do in my life, so his films work. I couldn’t see him upset, unhappy. That was my life and it was a very innocent life. Today, when I look back, I see that an innocent life was gone.Neetu Kapoor reveals she started drinking after Rishi Kapoor’s death, forcing her to go to work, reacts to being trolled: ‘I couldn’t sleep’Talking about changing relationships in modern times, Neetu observed that the institution of marriage is gradually diminishing due to changing social dynamics and financial independence. “You don’t have to be married to have children,” he said, “So the institution of marriage is going down.” He also stated that people becoming financially independent changes the nature of relationships today. During the interview, Neetu clarified that she always encouraged her daughter Riddhima to work and dismissed the long held perception that Rishi Kapoor stopped pursuing films.“I always encouraged Riddhima, but she chose her life. It was not like my husband told her, ‘Don’t work in films.’ That’s what he chose. Today, he wants to work, he is working. She wanted to dedicate her time to her husband, her daughter, that was her priority,” he explained.Neetu also opened up about Rishi Kapoor’s parenting style, revealing that she deliberately kept a certain distance from her children as she believed a father should be respected and feared.“My husband wanted to keep that, ‘I’m the father, don’t get too close to me, keep that distance.’ So he was never friendly with Ranbir or Ridhima because they must have some fear,” she said.Recalling how the children reacted to Rishi’s presence in the house, they were “scared. There was a kind of fear. He wanted that.”
