She held on till she could hold on no more. And then the floodgates of tears burst open and Alia Bhatt, who had been standing rocklike beside beau Ranbir Kapoor and his mother Neetu Kapoor in their moment of grief today, broke down crying as the mortal remains of Rishi Kapoor were confined to the electric crematorium at Chandanwadi this evening.

What brought on the uncontrollable tears was the fact that it was Alia’s grim duty to record the cremation and send it to Rishi’s beloved daughter Riddhima Kapoor Sahani in Delhi. Alia, after making sure she was beside Neetu Kapoor in this heartbreaking moment at the crematorium, got onto a video call with Riddhima and made the distraught daughter a part of her father’s last rites.

Riddhima is believed to have procured the necessary permissions to travel to Mumbai in the Covid-19 lockdown to attend her father’s funeral. It was assumed that she would fly down by a chartered plane with daughter Samara. However, Riddhima did not make it and shared her anguish in an emotional Instagram post. We have nothing but silent appreciation for the sensitive manner in which Alia played her role in the funeral proceedings. Rishi Kapoor would be proud of her.