Neetu Kapoor-Rishi Kapoor engagement was planned by his sister Ritu, prophesised by Dilip Kumar

“Although my brothers knew, my parents knew, and pretty much the whole world knew, I could never voice my intentions to Neetu or to them. I wasn’t even sure if I was ready for marriage. I was twenty-seven years old and still living with my parents in Chembur. Given how committed we were to each other, nobody could fathom why I wasn’t popping the question. How could they know that I was battling a million demons in my head?” the Bobby actor wrote in his book.

Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh in a still from Rafoo Chakkar (Photo: Express archive).

Kapoor was apprehensive of marrying Neetu because he doubted an actor’s longevity in Bollywood after marriage. “I often think I may never have married Neetu, or we may have got married much later than we did, if it weren’t for my sister Ritu. Left to myself, I may never have taken our relationship to the next level,” Kapoor noted.

Kapoor’s sister Ritu invited him to Delhi to attend an engagement ceremony in her family and when he returned to Mumbai, the actor had a ring on his finger.

Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Kapoor got married in 1980. (Express Archive Photo)

“I hadn’t a clue that Ritu had been plotting and planning along with my friends Gogi (film-maker Ramesh Behl) and Ravi Malhotra (father of Karan Malhotra, the young director of Karan Johar’s 2012 film Agneepath). At the airport in Mumbai, as I waited to board my flight, I met Saira Banu and Dilip Kumar, who asked me where I was going. When I told him I was headed for Delhi to attend an engagement, Dilip sa’ab joked, ‘Don’t pull a fast one on me. Aren’t you going there to get engaged yourself?’ How prophetic Dilip sa’ab’s words turned out to be,” read an excerpt in Khullam Khulla.

Neetu Kapoor turns 63 today. Rishi Kapoor passed away last year after a long battle with cancer.