Rishi Kapoor is timeless. Sometimes he is the dreaded gangster Goldman in D-Day, a romantic tattooed biker in Chashme Baddoor and sometimes a gay dean in Student of the Year. Kapoor transforms himself with each new role. <img alt="Rishi Kapoor" src="http://images.mid-day.com/2013/aug/Rishi-Kapoor.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 397px;" /> u00a0&ldquo;I am here to sell my wares and sell it to the best of my ability,&rdquo; he says enthusiastically. &ldquo;I get paid for what I do and so I had better do it well.&rdquo; Even wife Neetu Kapoor, who shared screen space with him in Habib Faisal&rsquo;s Do Dooni Chaar after 30 years, praises his acting skills. <img alt="" src="http://images.mid-day.com/2013/aug/Do-Dooni-Chaar.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 374px;" /> Rishi Kapoor plays the role of a school teacher in Do Dooni Chaar. As his film Bobby enters its 40th year this September, Kapoor knows he has come a long way from where he started. &ldquo;Bobby wasn&rsquo;t a launch pad for me. Dimple got married even before the movie released. So I got all the credit,&rdquo; he saysu00a0with honesty. Seated in his office at RK Studios, Chembur, Kapoor tells us that he isn&rsquo;t finished yet. He lists out his assignments for the year. This year, he has two more releases -- Shudh Desi Romance, where he plays a Marwari businessman and Besharam, where he plays a cop and is teamed with his son, Ranbir for the first time. <img alt="" src="http://images.mid-day.com/2013/aug/Agneepath.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 378px;" /> A still from the movie Agneepath where Kapoor played the character of Rauf Lala. In the pipeline are Sudhir Mishra&rsquo;s Mehrunnisa which reunites him with Amitabh Bachchan after almost 25 years, then Subhash Ghai&rsquo;s Kaanchi where he plays a villain, Sanjay Chhel&rsquo;s next, Nupur Asthana&rsquo;s next with Sonam Kapoor and also Umesh Shukla&rsquo;s next with Abhishek Bachchan. But Kapoor is most excited about a Tamil film offer that he has just received. &ldquo;As an actor like me who doesn&rsquo;t speak the language, I am taking little time to decide,&rdquo; he says. For this movie, Kapoor will say his lines the way news anchors do, and then test himself to see whether he is caught cheating onscreen. &ldquo;It is difficult, but I really want to do it,&rdquo; he states. On his wishlist, is also a Punjabi film which he wants to do to keep his family legacy alive. &ldquo;Whenever I travel abroad, my fans tell me that my grandfather and father did Punjabi films. So even I should.&rdquo; <img alt="Student of the Year,gay dean,Rishi Kapoor " src="http://images.mid-day.com/2013/aug/Student-of-the-year.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 381px;" /> Rishi Kapoor plays the role of a gay dean in Student of the Year. File photos Kapoor&rsquo;s transformation, however, can be credited to a close friend and colleague of his, Rakesh Roshan. It was during the late &lsquo;90s, that Kapoor decided to take a career leap towards character-oriented roles. In the interim, he directed one film, Aa Ab Laut Chalein. When he was done with it, Veeru Devgun and Rahul Rawail offered him a father&rsquo;s role in Raju Chacha and Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi respectively. Kapoor decided to do it. However, it did not drive Kapoor to work each day. &ldquo;One day I decided I am going to do only those roles that challenge me as an actor,&rdquo; he states. It was during this time that Roshan called Kapoor for a cameo appearance in Koi Mil Gaya. &ldquo;Rakesh wanted me to play Hrithik&rsquo;s father in the film. It was just a day long shoot. But I refused. I told Rakesh that this wouldn&rsquo;t do any good to my career. Rakesh laughed and said, &ldquo;This age isn&rsquo;t meant to make a career.&rdquo; Kapoor knew Roshan was stating a fact, but it pinched him. &ldquo;That day I decided I am going to prove him wrong and show the world that I still have it in me.&rdquo; Kapoor started taking up roles, each different from the other. Abhinav Kashyap, who is working with him in Besharam, says, &ldquo;Rishiji is hell-bent on experimenting with his roles. It is his attitude towards his work that is reflecting in his movies.&rdquo; Kapoor&rsquo;s career-defining roles came with Do Dooni Chaar where he played a middleclass school teacher and Karan Malhotra&rsquo;s Agneepath, where he terrorised the audience as Rauf Lala. Malhotra says, &ldquo;Rishi Kapoor was always a great actor, and today he has become better. When I approached him for Rauf Lala I was certain that only he could pull it off.&rdquo; Kapoor&rsquo;s biggest strength is his honesty and spontaneity as an actor. &ldquo;I love to be true to my roles. But I am not a method actor. I come from the era when dialogues were written on set and we had to constantly improvise,&rdquo; he explains. But Kapoor takes his audience seriosuly even today. &ldquo;They have made me what I am today. With each of my film, I try and break the mould. I try to do roles that the audience will not expect me to do. I want to surprise them,&rdquo; he says. Like wine, Kapoor is only getting better with age. Bobby wasn&rsquo;t a launch pad for me. Dimpleu00a0got married even before the movie released. u00a0So I got all the credit. -- Rishi Kapooru00a0

Pairing up the men 

In his second innings, the veteran is doing a variety of roles and has even signed a Tamil and a Punjabi film

The curious case of Rishi Kapoor

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The curious case of Rishi Kapoor

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