Veteran actor Rishi Kapoor, who opened up about a past meeting with India’s most wanted criminal Dawood Ibrahim, says he has no regrets of meeting the underworld don.
In an interview, Rishi was asked about his meeting with Ibrahim in Dubai in 1988, to which he replied that “What was regretful about it”. He described how when he had landed in Dubai for a show with R.D. Burman, Asha Bhosle and Bittu Anand, a person came to him with a phone and said, “Bhai baat karenge”.
“He invited me over for tea… I went to his house, thinking there was nothing wrong because he just a fugitive, he had not done the menace…,” Rishi said.
Before Rishi Kapoor could continue, the interviewer interrupted and said, “but Dawood was still a criminal”, to which Rishi said: “So what? I meet so many criminals in my life… Maybe I am also a criminal, but I may have not committed any serious crime. But yes, as an actor I thought I would like to know his story.
“I did so much of him in ‘D-Day’; I was inspired by him for playing that role.”
Rishi said he had a “couple of cups of tea” with Dawood in a four hour-long meeting.
The meeting happened before the 1993 Mumbai blasts, but he was still a criminal wanted by the law.
Rishi said there was “nothing wrong at all” in meeting Dawood as he feels he can “derive inspiration from these kinds of people for films sometimes”.
