Rishi Kapoor’s last film Sharmaji Namkeen will release in theatres, confirms producer Honey Trehan

Fans of late Bollywood actor Rishi Kapoor will get to watch him one last time, Sharmaji Namkeen producer has confirmed. Rishi had shot maximum portions of the film that reunited him with former co-star Juhi Chawla.

Producer of the film Honey Trehan confirmed and told Mid Day in an interview, “We want to take this film to the theatres for his friends, family and fans. We all owe this to Rishiji, one of the silver screen legends. I am grateful to Ritesh [Sidhwani, producer] and Farhan [Akhtar, producer] for investing in the movie not just monetarily, but also emotionally.”

Honey added, “We shot a major portion of the film in Delhi during January. Only a four-day schedule was pending.”

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Produced by Excel Entertainment in association with Honey Teheran and Abhishek Choubey, Sharmaji Namkeen will mark Hitesh Bhatia’s debut as the director.

Juhi had earlier released pictures of herself and Rishi from their script reading session in December last year. Feeling devastated after the death of the actor, Juhi had shared a long note about her time with him on their film sets. She wrote, “Shocked, saddened beyond words, devastated, can’t believe it. I feel really really sad . I have many many memories of him. I started working with him soon after QSQT, in Kalpatarujis film Ghar Ghar Ki Kahani; Ghar Ki Izzat was another of our films. At that time, being a newcomer , I would be overawed by his presence on the sets , as he was such a big star. He was always such an effortless actor , he barely rehearsed and the director was always happy with his very first take of a shot! He was always friendly , but a little detached.”

She added, “Everyday he would work two shifts mostly, moving from studio to studio and always punctual . He had his own timing and he kept to that, I can’t remember seeing any temper tantrum , he was super efficient with work, and effortless . My fondest memory of my early days working with him was... actresses take longer getting dressed so I would reach the shoot location early , and by 10 am be absolutely ready. That was the time Chintuji was to arrive. He would come , most often sit in the outdoors under a tree and get his make up done. Shashi dada, his makeup man, would have set out a neat table with all the make up material and a tiny transistor radio that would be turned on while make up was done. Since I would be ready or doing my solos shots , sometimes I would go sit nearby and watch. Shashi dada would carefully do Chintuji s make up , do the contouring of the features, the radio would play songs. After some time, Shashi Dada would say ‘alright done’. Impatiently, Chintuji would pick up the sponge and rub it all over his face! The pink of the cheeks got rubbed off along with the brown of the chiseling and everything would be mixed up on his face. Chintuji would ruffle or comb his hair and say ‘Alright, I am ready’.”

Rishi died on Thursday, after having battled cancer for two years. He is survived by his wife, Neetu, and his children, actor Ranbir Kapoor and jewellery designer Riddhima Kapoor Sahni.

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