The chocolate hero of yesteryears Rishi Kapoor passed away at the age of 67 and in two days two deaths shocked the Hindi and Indian cinema industry. Yesterday it was Irrfan Khan, a fantastic actor. Irrfan Khan also had Karnataka connections. He was close friend of theatre activist Prasanna.

The doyen of Hindi cinema Amitabh Bachchan in a twitter on passing away of Rishi Kapoor says ‘I am destroyed’ with this news.

However the Kapoor family has some close connection to Kannada filmdom. Prithvi Raj Kapoor acted in ‘Saakshasatkaara’ with Dr Rajakumar and Jamuna. Raj Kapoor ‘Mera Nam Joker’ made good profits in the rehashed version of it in Karnataka by the distributor here. The collections of Mera Nam Joker in fact brought a good relief to Raj Kapoor who came to Bengaluru to watch his own film edited here in Karnataka and making profits.

Rishi Kapoor third generation in fact after ‘Bobby’ as hero took up his second film ‘Zahreela Insaan’ in 1974, that was remake of Kannada blockbuster of Dr Vishnuvardhana starring ‘Nagarahavu’ .

SR Puttanna Kanagal directed Rishi Kapoor as Arjun on screen doing Dr Vishnuvardhana. Pran played KS Ashwath role, Dr Ambarish played Jaleela role what he played chiding Aarathi. Moushami Chatterji played Aarathi role.

Dr Ambarish was good friend of Rishi Kapoor. Zahreela Insan was not a hit cinema in Hindi. The lack of nativity, the Hindi audience disconnected from the film.

Rishi Kapoor famous film ‘Karz’ was remade in Kannada as ‘Yugapurusha’ in which V Ravichandran played Rishi Kapoor role. In fact Nagarahavu Hindi rights were taken from Ishwari Pictures. The friendship of Rishi Kapoor was also good with V Ravichandran.

Rishi Kapoor son Ranbir Kapoor Hindi films are super hits in Karnataka and he has good fan following too. Rishi Kapoor wife is also an actress Neetu Singh.