In a conversation with Nayandeep Rakshit, the actor opened up about his father’s final days, the difficult promise he made to him and the emotions he went through when he eventually passed away.
Ram Kapoor has spoken candidly about losing his father, Anil “Billy” Kapoor, after a long and painful battle with cancer.
Ram’s father, Anil, was a businessman who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at 63. Doctors said the cancer was inoperable, but he underwent 18 rounds of chemotherapy and eventually went into remission. He was able to live a good life for another decade, until the cancer returned when he was 73.
This time, his condition was far more serious and there were limited treatment options. It was during this period that Ram received a call from his father, who made a request that left the actor stunned. Obviously, my reaction was the same as anyone else’s. By then, there was no treatment left to pursue. He only wanted Ram there with him as he faced his final moments. “No one knew there was no treatment happening. He just wanted me to hold his hand and help him go. Somehow he knew that Ram could do this. He was scared of being alone, but he wasn’t scared of dying. If I die, I want you to cremate me the very same day’,” Ram recalled. The actor described those final days as extremely difficult, especially as he watched his father deal with the physical and mental toll of cancer. He added, “I had my hands full with this dying man. It was not easy. Cancer is a very bad way to go. It’s a very bad disease. Instead of breaking down, he found himself feeling happy that his father was no longer in pain. So, in that process, I was happy about the death. I was smiling at the death. So, when you start smiling at death, how can you fear it? Ram Kapoor participated in the Lock Upp : Sach Ya Saza on Netflix recently.
The cancer came back during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Anil was in Singapore. The actor was also seen in web series Mistry and Jolly LLB 3 last year. Because it meant the suffering was finally over, sometimes he’s in severe pain, sometimes he’s hallucinating, sometimes he’s… So I had to deal with all of that…” For Ram, his father’s death brought a sense of relief.
He said, “He asked, ‘Can you help me die? But he managed to convince me that if I didn’t do it, he would die alone” Ram said his father had asked him to keep the decision to himself and remain by his side in the ICU. He said, ‘I don’t want anyone to cry at my funeral. He said, “I was super thrilled that his pain was over. So, now it’s a joke to me” Ram said his father had always lived life on his own terms. He described him as someone who “lived like a king” and said he wanted to make sure that “he died like a royal”.
