During his time at the film institute, his father kept him on a tight budget, barely enough to have two meals a day. Sharing the experience, he told Nikhil Kamath, “At that time I was very eager to go back and start working. I felt like I had lived the American experience. It wasn’t really the college experience, but the exposure of talking to people from all over the world and living on my own. My father kept me on a very tight budget. Of course, when I say tight budget, I still come from a privileged background, but it was enough to have a dollar meal from the McDonald’s menu for lunch and dinner. That’s how strict he was, even though I come from a privileged background.”

When asked why his father kept him on a tight budget, he said, “He never broached this topic, but I think he wanted me to live like a student and not like a superstar’s son. Maybe it was to teach me the value of money.” Ranbir also shared that he continued to live frugally when he returned to Mumbai as his father stopped giving him pocket money. He recalled that he used public transport when he assisted Sanjay Leela Bhansali in the film Black. “My father wanted to teach me that this is not life, that you are too hydrated, that you need to see what hardship is,” he said.

Talking about his college days in Mumbai, Ranbir recalled how he developed the “nasty” habit of smoking during his college days in the city and how that habit lasted till last year when he finally quit it. taking into account her health after the birth of her daughter Raha. “HR College reminds me of smoking because it was the first time I bought a pack of cigarettes. You smoke with your friends outside of college and you feel older. It’s the first time you wear your own clothes and not a school uniform.”

In an earlier interview to Filmfare, Neetu Kapoor had also spoken about Rishi’s insistence on a normal upbringing for his children. “When Ranbir was assisting in Black, Rishi told him to go in a car or a bus… And poor Ranbir, he was so tall and had to go to America on long flights and in economy class, he used to say, ‘Mom, my legs are getting numb, I’m getting stuck.’ The only thing I used to make sure of was to give him an aisle seat. Then he could at least stretch his legs. I think these things are important. I would give credit to my husband, because I used to spoil them.”

On the professional front, Ranbir will next be seen in Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayan, Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Love And War.