Proud of Ranbir's choice of roles: Rishi Kapoor

Veteran actor Rishi Kapoor says he is proud of Ranbir for taking up challenging roles but still finds flaws in his performances.

"Ranbir doesn't like to portray characters which are larger than life. I am very proud that he took such challenges. But I don't like his (Ranbir) films because as an actor I find flaws in them," Rishi said.

The 60-year-old star, who is celebrating his 40-years in cinema, says he and wife Neetu Singh don't interfere in Ranbir's career.

"He is absolutely on his own and we never interfere in any of his decisions. When Ranbir joined the industry he told his mother that he wanted to portray characters which a boy of his age would do in real life," said Rishi.

Ranbir has impressed everyone with power packed performances in films like "Rockstar" and recently released "Barfi!" where he plays the character of a deaf and mute person.

The "Bobby" star, who was in the Capital to inaugurate a week-long retrospective of his films, said he always wanted to become an actor.

"I always wanted to be an actor. When I was a kid, Shashiji used to tell me that I have the symptoms of an actor because while crying I always used to look at the mirror.

"Moreover, being born and brought up in a film background it was a natural process to follow the path of the elder members of the family," he added.

Rishi made his debut in the industry as a child artiste in father Raj Kapoor's "Mere Naam Joker", which went onto earn him the National Award for Best Child Artiste.

His career took off with Raj Kapoor's teenage romance Bobby in 1973 but Rishi says the film was made to pay some debts of Mera Naam Joker and not launch him as an actor.

"I landed in Bobby by default. There was a misconception that the film was made to launch me as an actor. The film was actually made to pay the debts of Mera Naam Joker. Dad wanted to make a teenage love story and he did not have money to cast superstar Rajesh Khanna in the film.

"Moreover, he wanted a fresh face for the film because the script was very much hero-centric. By chance, I got the opportunity to play the lead and became a star by default. I am grateful to my dad for this," he said.

Rishi has worked with her in 13 films in his four decade old career.

"I and Neetu complement each other. We did 11 films together before marriage and two after it. I am happy to see my choice of films. I was never self-obsessed and hardly watched any of my films," he said.

Rishi will be seen again in Karan Johar's Student of the Year after Agneepath and said he only followed Karan's instruction on the sets to play the character of a college dean.

"I have followed only two directors in my life – Raj Kapoor and Karan Johar. I had no sense during Mera Naam Joker and blindly followed what my father asked me to do and in Karan's film, I copied him. If my character gets appreciation then all the credit goes to him," he said.