With the release of director Aditya Dhar's Dhurandhar: The Revenge, starring Ranveer Singh, there is much conversation about Indian cinema's portrayal of notorious underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. While Danish Iqbal plays the role of the don, also known as 'Bade Sahab' in the Dhurandhar sequel, another actor known for his iconic portrayal of the character is Rishi Kapoor. The actor played the role of Dawood Ibrahim in 2013's D-Day, also featuring Dhurandhar: The Revenge star Arjun Rampal, alongside the likes of Irrfan Khan, Huma Qureshi, and Imran Hasnee.
In fact, Rishi Kapoor not only played Dawood in the film, but he also met the underworld don in person multiple times. The actor spoke about the meeting with the underworld don in his memoir, once over a cup of tea while in Dubai and again during one of his shopping trips.
Back in the day, he was asked about his experience meeting Dawood during an interview with CNN News 18's Rajeev Masand. The interviewer mentioned the incident where Rishi declined Dawood's offer to pay for the shoes he purchased, wondering how he even mustered up the courage to do so. In his response, Rishi said, "I did not treat him as a don. I did not go to see him because he was a don. He called me as a fan of mine. When he spoke to me on the phone and said, 'I would like to meet with you,' I said 'Okay'. What else do I say when somebody wants to meet me when I am free?"
While Rishi Kapoor wondered why someone such as Dawood Ibrahim would like to meet him, he still did so because the latter was not accused of playing a part in the Mumbai bombings back then, although he was a criminal. The actor only thought of the criminal cases against Dawood as being similar to the accusations against politicians. "He was very fond of the fact that I acted in a film called Tawaif, in which I played his namesake," Rishi said, referring to the 1985 film. The actor added, "He said to me, 'You made my name proud. I am very happy that people know that Dawood does good work also, not only bad work.'"
