Cast conflicts: Family break!

It was no secret: Rishi Kapoor had revealed many months ago that Neetu Singh and he were not playing biological parents to Ranbir Kapoor in Besharam, which has just released. It is another thing that some people are calling it a Kapoor family film just because all three of them are in it!

Last year, in Jab Tak Hai Jaan, Neetu Singh was shown as the estranged wife of Anupam Kher, who lives in with Rishi Kapoor (who plays a Muslim!) but does not marry him!

We have indeed come a long way from the time when an illustrious filmmaker had warned B.R. Chopra not to go ahead with his plans of making Waqt (1965) with Prithviraj Kapoor and his three sons Raj, Shammi and Shashi in the roles of a father and his three sons, because whenever some of them would be shown interacting midway in this lost-and-found drama, it would look absurd to the audience because of the strong physical resemblances!

Yes, Sunil Dutt and Nargis did play son and mother in Mother India, but they were not husband and wife when the film was shot! In fact, an accidental fire on the sets led to love blossoming between them as the actor had valiantly rescued Nargis at risk to himself.

Of course we have the classic cameos of Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor as fellow qawwals in the film Jabse Tumhe Dekha Hai’s ’Tumhe husna deke jahaan mein’. And Shammi Kapoor played Johnny Braganza while Raj Kapoor was Govinda in Char Dil Char Raahein earlier. Another old case was the 1969 Sadhu Aur Shaitan, in which Kishore Kumar played a principal character while elder brother Ashok Kumar, who shared no frame with him, played himself - Ashok Kumar the star!