Dubai: Indian actor Rishi Kapoor, who passed away on Thursday, was a frequent visitor to Dubai and had many ardent fans here. One of them has now shared a 12-year-old video with Gulf News in which he’s seen driving on Dubai streets with the film star in the passenger seat.
“It was a sultry summer afternoon in 2008. I was driving past Deira Twin Towers when I saw Rishi Kapoor Sahib waiting for a taxi,” Abdul Majed, originally from Hyderabad, India, recalled.
“The sun was beating down upon him and he was constantly wiping his face when I pulled alongside him and offered a lift,” said Majed, who used to work for a real estate company during those days.
“He hesitated for a fleeting second but then he flashed a smile and climbed into my Toyota Fortuner. I gave him a bottle of cold water that I was carrying with me. He finished it in a few quick swigs. I couldn’t believe my luck that the scion of Bollywood’s most famous family was in my SUV. Thrilled, I started filming a video with my cellphone. I wanted to capture those moments for posterity. When I turned the camera towards Kapoor Sahib, he touched his forehead in a polite hand gesture and thanked me for giving him a ride,”
Majid said during the course of the trip, he also rang up his father and requested Kapoor to have a few words with him.
“He readily obliged. They chatted for a bit. Before dropping him off at Grand Hyatt, I extended him my wedding invitation as I was due to get married in a few weeks. He congratulated me and wished me well but said he could not attend the ceremony as he had an outdoor shoot in South Africa,” Majed, now 43 and married with four children, recalled.
