To enter film-industry through an RK film and to do that in the dual capacity as the director and lead actor, Randhir Kapoor seemingly had it ready on a platter. But actually it was not the case. The reason for making Randhir take up this dual responsibility was the debacle of Raj Kapoor’s dream project Mera Naam Joker (1970). The failure of Joker rattled Raj so much that he wanted to see if the younger, fresher concepts of his eldest son could come up with a formula to woo back the audiences on whom he had seemingly lost his famous RK grip. It was just the generation-gap thing that he wanted to bridge through this experiment.

 Thus director- actor Randhir Kapoor made his debut through Kal, Aaj Aur Kal (1971) and he tried to come up with this very generation-gap theme. Picking his grand-dad Prithviraj and papa Raj as the respective representatives of the tradition- bound ‘yesterday’ and a fence- sitting ‘today’, he himself portrayed the rebellious ‘tomorrow’.  What could have been an interesting concept of clash of social and moral values, was marred by very naïve direction. As an actor, Randhir made a good impression. He was cute, confident and like his illustrious father, he also used his deep blue, expressive eyes well on screen. The only gain from this flop film was finding his future wife – Babita, who played his heroine in film.

 Jawani Diwani (1972) clicked big at box-office. It was a youthful love story capturing the college- campus mood. Randhir as a dashing youngster wooing a dainty, doll- carrying Jaya Bhaduri against the backdrop of a long- standing family feud looked perfect as a pair. Pancham’s music (Jaane Jaan Dhoondhata Phir Raha and Saamne Yeh Kaun Aaya) provided the added attraction.