In his heyday as a romantic hero, one of Rishi (Chintu) Kapoor’s top favourites was Juhi Chawla — he found it easy to sit and chat with the articulate actress. So it was fitting that when Rishi came back cancer-free after an 11-month medical stay in New York, the first film for which he flew out of Mumbai was a Juhi starrer.

On his return after his recovery, Rishi had avoided going into crowded places and didn’t really want too many people dropping in to see him. But after necessary precautions had been taken, when he reported for the shooting of new director Hitesh Bhatia’s light and frothy film (tentatively titled Sharmaji Namkeen) in Delhi, it seemed like it would be business as usual.

“He was fine, he was his usual growling self,” said a bewildered Juhi, who found it hard to accept that Rishi Kapoor had taken ill and was hospitalised again.

“When we were shooting together, it was great fun to sit back and watch him and the director discuss a scene. He was absolutely his usual professional self.”

But nobody realised that Chintu’s immunity was really low. Juhi had no inkling of what was in store when, after shooting with Rishi for a short schedule, she had to fly back to Mumbai — husband Jai Mehta’s chacha (father’s brother) had passed away. A joint family set-up, Jai’s uncle and all of them lived together in the same building.

It was only three days later, when Juhi was ready to report back to work that she was told to stay put in Mumbai because Rishi had been hospitalised in Delhi with an infection.

Juhi ruminated, “He seemed fine but he would get tired in the evenings. We didn’t realise it but maybe we shouldn’t have made him do that many scenes in a day.”

What was alarming was not the stint in the Delhi hospital since he was soon out of it and back in Mumbai, where he assured everybody that it was only an infection due to “my low count of neutrophils”. The cause for concern was Rishi’s re-admission to a Mumbai hospital once again last week.

The whisper that it was a relapse of the dreaded ailment grew stronger while the official version remained, “It’s only an infection that could be pneumonia.”

When he had been struck with the dreaded disease in 2018, Rishi, who was known to be forthright through most of his life, wouldn’t utter the “C” word. Neither would friends or family members name the ailment in so many words. Right until he had battled the disease and his childhood friend Rahul Rawail posted a cheerful, “He’s cancer-free” post on social media, nobody close to Rishi Kapoor ever talked about it publicly.

So, are they all closing ranks again?

What we can say is that for now Rishi Kapoor is out of action. Films such as the Hindi remake of The Intern, starring Rishi with Deepika Padukone, have been put on the back-burner at this moment.

As for the film that’s been left incomplete once again, “It’s such a sweet, slice of life film. I do hope he comes back soon and we complete it,” said Juhi, wistfully. It’s a thought that well-wishers endorse.

While Rishi was in a Mumbai hospital, I was on a Delhi-Mumbai flight the day before the capital went to the polls. And in the same row was actress Richa Chaddha, who has family in Delhi but was returning to Mumbai where work awaited her. Richa, who has just completed a film titled Madam Chief Minister (said to be loosely based on Mayawati’s life) is a sharp, politically-aware actress. She and actor-boyfriend Ali Fazal make it clear on social media that they are no fans of the Modi government.

Richa is a voter in Mumbai. “But if I still had my vote in Delhi, I’d have definitely voted for AAP,” she said, applauding, “all the wonderful work Arvind Kejriwal has done in the last five years”.

Madam Chief Minister has much to celebrate as her candidate gets sworn in as chief minister of Delhi once again.

Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and author