Rishi criticises ‘actors of this gen’ for skipping Vinod’s funeral

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, April 28

Veteran star Rishi Kapoor, in a series of tweets, has slammed the “actors of this generation” for not attending  Vinod Khanna’s funeral on Thursday evening.

Khanna passed away on Thursday morning, after battling cancer.

Kapoor, 64, who worked with Khanna in films like ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’, ‘Eena Meena Deeka’ and ‘Chandni’, described the absence of the young generation of stars at the cremation as “shameful”.

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“Shameful. Not ONE actor of this generation attended Vinod Khanna’s funeral. And that too he has worked with them. Must learn to respect.

“...Why this? Including mine and thereafter. When I die, I must be prepared. None will shoulder me. Very very angry with today’s so called stars.”

He also lashed out at the celebrities who were present at actress Priyanka Chopra’s party on Wednesday but did not bother to attend Khanna’s funeral.

“Angry. Met so many chamcha people at Priyanka Chopra’s do last night. Few at Vinod’s. So transparent. So angry with them.”

Kapoor said his actor son Ranbir Kapoor and wife Neetu Singh could not attend it as they were out of India.

“Yes it has been expressed earlier on social media, my wife and Ranbir are out of the country. Would never had a reason not to be there.”

Director Mahesh Bhatt, who directed Khanna in ‘Jurm’, however, said he did not attend the cremation as he thought “it was a private funeral”.

“This was one funeral, I would have wanted to attend but I couldn’t because I was initially told by an insider that the family wanted a private funeral.

“It was quite late in the evening that I got to know the press was also invited. Otherwise, nothing could ever hold me back from attending his funeral.”

Amitabh Bachchan and son Abhishek, Randhir Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Jackie Shroff, Kabir Bedi and Danny Denzongpa were among those who attended the funeral along with Gulzar, Subhash Ghai, Ramesh Taurani and Ramesh Sippy. With PTI