Hindi Film Industry lost two of its greatest actors, Irrfan and Rishi Kapoor in April this year. Filmmaker Anurag Basu lost two of his friends and confrère. In his recent interaction with Mumbai Mirror, Basu revealed, he was among the first ones to know about Rishi Kapoor’s illness, when the superstar was diagnosed with Cancer. Basu was introduced to Rishi Kapoor by his friend Ranbir Kapoor, son of Rishi Kapoor.
One of the reasons of Anurag Basu getting to know the news at first was his own suffering with the disease. Basu in 2004, was diagnosed with promyelocytic leukemia, a type of blood cancer. Doctors gave him ‘two months to live’. At that time Basu’s wife was seven months pregnant with their first child Ishana. Basu planned to achieve small things at a time to fight against his illness and seeing his daughter was his first step. When Ranbir Kapoor told him about his father’s illness, Basu understood what his family was going through and needed at that moment.
“I was among the first few to know. We discussed what line of treatment he should take. I shared the number of my doctor with him and they spoke to him and told me what they had decided.” Basu shared. Barfi Director recollects that when Rishi came back to India and announced he was cancer-free and the last time he met Rishi Kapoor was on Ranbir’s birthday party.
“Neetuji spoke about the treatment, Chintuji, like always, was in his element, trying to dig into the cake. Since he was not allowed to have sweets, Neetuji tried to keep him away and this led to a fight between them. It was very cute,” Basu talked about the beautiful chemistry between Rishi and Neetu Kapoor.
Anurag Basu, also talked about Irrfan who also left for his heavenly abode. “I know I’ll make Metro again, I just wish I could have made it with Irrfan, too,” said Basu revealing that it was Irrfan who convinced him to write the sequel of the film. Irrfan and Basu worked together in ‘Life in a… Metro’
