Kapoor returned to India last September after undergoing treatment for cancer in the US for almost a year.
Veteran Bollywood actor Rishi Kapoor died on Thursday at the HN Reliance hospital in Mumbai after a two-year battle with leukaemia. He was 67.
He was admitted to the Mumbai hospital on Wednesday evening due to breathing difficulties according to his brother Randhir Kapoor. In February, Kapoor was hospitalised twice due to his health issues.
“The doctors and medical staff at the hospital said he kept them entertained to the last. He remained jovial and determined to live to the fullest right through two years of treatment across two continents. Family, friends, food and films remained his focus and everyone who met him during this time was amazed at how he did not let his illness get the better of him,” his family representative confirmed in an official statement.
Kapoor who made his debut as a child actor in the 1970 film Mera Naam Joker, starring his father Raj Kapoor, for which he won the National Film Award, went on to play the romantic lead in many hit films in the 80s and 90s.
Kapoor was last seen in the thriller The Body, co-starring Emraan Hashmi and Shobhita Dhulipala. He was slated to make an appearance with Deepika Padukone in an official remake of the Hollywood film, The Intern.
Kapoor’s death comes a day after the death of another stalwart actor Irrfan Khan, on Wednesday after a long battle with cancer.
