Rishi Kapoor's UNREQUITED love story to be adapted into a musical stage production!

Back in 2014, author/ playwright-critic Khalid Mohamed's Faction was released, which was a compilation of 22 by-invitation short stories by Bollywood's top guns like Shyam Benegal, Ashutosh Gowariker, Karan Johar, Sai Paranjpye, Basu Chatterjee to actors like Deepika Padukone, Akshay Kumar, the late Om Puri, Sonam Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor. Out of all the short stories, the one by Rishi about an unrequited romance struck a chord and both the actor and Mohamed agreed that Love in the Time of Telegrams would make for a dramatic stage production. 

Khalid to told Mumbai Mirror, "I started developing the story into a script and narrated it to Rishi. He kept adding his inputs and soon we had Rishi, a play in two acts, adapted by me from a love story by Rishi Kapoor." adding that he still has to finalise the details with the veteran actor. "I went on the Kapoor & Sons location in Coonoor but the prosthetic make-up was too intricate for him to concentrate on anything else," he said.

The romantic musical includes a medley of Rishi-Neetu Singh's hit songs and an Elvis Presley song from an evening party. As per the MM report, the reason why the production hasn't taken place yet is because NCPA (National Centre for the Performing Arts) who wanted to produce it, offered a budget of Rs 15 lakh, which is insufficient according to its director. "I don't want to disappoint Rishi. I'd rather not make it than do something tacky. We need at least double the budget," said Khalid who sees a ray of hope as quite few people have come forward to revive the project including his team of actors (Amol Parasher as the young Rishi, Amit Phalke as his older avatar, Nishi Doshi as Neetu Singh, Danesh as Rishi's secretary Ghanshyam) who are still gung-ho.

For the uninformed, the story is rooted in the '70s, before Bobby made Rishi a star overnight. The story is about a boy from a film family in suburban Chembur felling in love with a Parsi girl from South Bombay. "Her aristocratic family was not exactly pleased but the girl helped groom him for his screen debut, placing him on a diet and designing trendy costumes for him, including the iconic purple scarf," Khalid informs. 

Their love story blossomed despite her family's objections. Later, a film magazine reported that Rishi was seeing his Bobby co-star Dimple Kapadia. This upset his sweetheart but before he could convince her otherwise, the actor had to leave town for the shoot of Zehreela Insaan.

Khalid narrates, "Those were the days of trunk calls that took hours to get through. So, he started writing her lengthy telegrams professing his love which his secretary, Ghanshyam, would send from the nearest post office. She never replied even after he roped in Neetu Singh to play Cupid. On his return to Mumbai, Rishi ran into her at the newly-launched rooftop restaurant of the Taj Mahal Hotel where she was with another guy. That drove Rishi crazy. He got tipsy beyond control and got into a brawl with the other man even as Ghanshyam threatened to buy the Taj right there and then," reports the tabloid.

That was their last meeting. Rishi fell in love with Neetu and later married her. The Parsi girl settled in London, and she died of cancer, years later. After her death, her mother met Rishi and confessed that she had not given any of his telegrams to her daughter because she did not want to encourage the romance. And the girl died without knowing how much he loved her. "As long as the girl's name is not mentioned and there is no direct reference to her family, no one has any objections to the love story being played out on another platform," says Khalid.

Will the 100-odd-minute play turn into a film with Rishi playing himself in a cameo? "Well, movies have come out of stage productions, so we can't say how Rishi will play out. But there's no possibility of Rishi Kapoor playing a role except of course as the writer of the original story," Khalid said.