Rishi Kapoor Wants The Government To Give The Artistes' Community Its Due

Veteran actor Rishi Kapoor in a recent interview seemed upset by the fact that the government does not honour artistes' community enough in India. He feels that the honour and respect artistes deserve is not coming their way as witnessed in other parts of the world.

He said, "I really am upset when I think about how our government treats our artistes. We are the nation that is known worldwide for cinema, music and culture. But look at how our icons are treated. Does the government recognise our icons as much as other nations? All the new roads, flyovers, airports are so far named after politicians. Why not name these after artistes?" Rishi, who has a career span of five decades, told IANS. He added: "We have icons like Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Allah Rakha, Lata (Mangeshkar) ji. I am not saying this because they are my family but can you overlook the contribution of Raj Kapoor and Prithviraj Kapoor in the business of entertainment? They are celebrated worldwide but not in my country. Why so?"

Kapoor spent a year in the US getting treatment after having been diagnosed with cancer. The outspoken actor further went on to add, "In the US, there are places named after Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and many more artistes, and young generation is well aware of their contribution. Here, everything is named after politicians. We have achievers like astronaut Kalpana Chawla. She is an inspiration for many youngsters. How well versed are our kids about her? Politicians are only changing names with an agenda. Our artists are not honoured enough in their lifetime,"

He finally concluded and said, "Unless we make these names popular and put them on public places like airport, roads, school, colleges, how will the next generation understand the contribution of these icons in their respective filed?". The senior actor will next be seen The Body co-starring Emraan Hashmi and directed by Jeethu Joseph. The film is all set to hot the silver screens on December 13, 2019.