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Today is the 36th death anniversary of Hindi cinema’s showman Raj Kapoor. He was active in cinema for 53 years. He played all the roles including actor, director, producer, editor and writer. He was awarded with honours like Padma Bhushan, Dadasaheb Phalke, National and Filmfare Awards for this excellent work.
Today on Raj Kapoor’s death anniversary, read 7 unheard stories from his love life to his film life…
Story-1- Used to eat favorite food on credit
Like the rest of the family, Raj Kapoor was very fond of eating. This is the reason why he was very fat at a young age. His mother used to send him to school with omelettes and rotis, but he did not like this food.
Raj Kapoor used to get 2 annas pocket money every day, which was very less as per his food expenses. His favourite food was available at 3-4 shops. In such a situation, he would stop borrowing from one shop and start borrowing from another shop. When the amount of borrowing increased, he would sell one or two books and repay the borrowing.
Story-2-Father had placed a condition before entering films
Raj Kapoor failed in his matriculation examination because he did not know mathematics and Latin. After failing, he went to his father Prithviraj Kapoor to talk about his future. He told his father, ‘I can definitely continue my studies, but there I will probably learn to dress properly and get a degree. Then I will come back and ask you to help me get a job.’
Raj Kapoor expressed his heartfelt desire to his father that he wanted to work in films. Hearing this from his son, Prithviraj smiled and remembered the day when his decision to become an actor created a stir in the entire family.
After listening to his son’s entire story, he said, ‘Take these 300 rupees and visit places like Lahore, Sheikhpura and Dehradun, where our relatives live. If you still want to work in films after coming back, I will definitely help you.’
Following his father’s advice, Raj Kapoor went to the house of his relatives living in these places. The relatives welcomed him with great respect and fed him different dishes, due to which he started suffering from diarrhea, but soon he recovered from this disease. He also faced opposition from his family on his decision to join films, but he remained firm on his decision. On returning, he told his father, ,I still want to be in films.’
However, Prithviraj did not give Raj Kapoor a break in films. He believed that Raj Kapoor should make his place in films on his own. Before joining Prithvi Theatre, Raj Kapoor used to assist director Kedar Sharma and debuted as a lead actor in his film Neel Kamal.
Story-3- He slapped Shashi Kapoor for abusing him, then he himself started crying
Shashi Kapoor started using abusive language at an early age. He used to do this even while talking to elders. One day he was talking to his mother in abusive language, when Raj Kapoor heard it. He slapped Shashi Kapoor in anger. Shashi Kapoor was shocked to see this. Before this, Raj Kapoor had never raised his hand on him. Even his parents had never beaten him.
After this incident, Shashi Kapoor locked himself in the room and kept crying. After some time, Raj Kapoor came to the room to convince him, but he did not listen. Seeing his younger brother crying, Raj Kapoor felt very bad and he himself started crying.
Shashi Kapoor often said that Raj ji was like a father to him. He played the role of Raj Kapoor’s childhood in the film Awara.
Story-4- Krishna had said to Nargis- If you were not in Raj ji’s life, then someone else would have been there
At the age of 21, Raj Kapoor got married to 16-year-old Krishna Malhotra. After the marriage, there were reports of his link-up with Nargis. Nargis wanted to marry Raj Kapoor, but he did not want to divorce his wife Krishna.
He used to say, ‘My heroine, Nargis was the inspiration and my wife Krishna was my strength. My wife cannot become my actress and my actress cannot become my wife.’
Nargis and Sunil Dutt were invited to Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh’s wedding. Raj Kapoor was very upset and irritable on knowing this, but his wife Krishna was very calm. After coming to the wedding, Nargis told Krishna, ‘Now that I am your wife, I can understand your pain when I was in your husband Raj Kapoor’s life.’
On this, Krishna had said, ‘You too should forget this. Raj ji is a romantic person. If you were not in his life, then maybe someone else would have been there. It was my destiny for all this to happen.’
Story-5- Zeenat Aman and Dev Anand’s relationship broke because of Raj Kapoor
During the shooting of the film ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna’, Dev Anand started liking Zeenat Aman. To express his love, he wanted to take Zeenat Aman on a date. On the same day, both of them had to go to the premiere of the film ‘Ishq Ishq Ishq’. Dev Anand’s plan was that first he would go to this premiere with Zeenat, and then go on a date.
Both of them reached the premiere together when a drunk Raj Kapoor came there and hugged Zeenat and even kissed her. He also praised Zeenat Aman’s work in this film. Seeing this behavior of his, Dev Anand became very jealous. He believed that he had given such a big break to Zeenat Aman. No one else other than him can claim his rights on Zeenat.
Seeing all this, his doubt turned into belief. Actually, some time ago he had heard that Zeenat Aman had gone to give a screen test for Raj Kapoor’s film ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’. After knowing this truth, Dev Anand was heartbroken and he distanced himself from Zeenat Aman.
Story-6- Lata Didi got angry at a mistake made by Raj Kapoor
Lata Mangeshkar and Raj Kapoor first met in 1948. When Lata Didi came to know through Anil Biswas that Raj Kapoor wanted to meet her, she went crazy with happiness. She was a big fan of Prithviraj Kapoor. Meeting the son of her favorite star was like a dream for her.
During the first meeting, Raj Kapoor had said to Lata Didi, ‘I want you to sing for my films. How much will you charge for this?’
In response, Lata Didi said, ‘Whatever amount you give me will be acceptable to me.’
After this, Raj Kapoor offered him a fee of Rs 500.
Photo of Lata Didi and Raj Kapoor together.
Lata Didi sang songs for Raj Kapoor’s film ‘Barsaat’ for the first time. She was a classical singer. Because of this, she was afraid whether she would be able to sing songs for commercial films or not. This fear was also natural because till that time she had not worked much in the industry. Then Raj Kapoor recognized her talent and asked her to put Bhairavi Alaap in a song of the film ‘Jiya Beqarar’. Lata Didi fulfilled his demand, on hearing which Raj Kapoor was very happy.
Raj Kapoor wanted Lata Didi’s brother Hridaynath Mangeshkar to compose all the songs of his film ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’. Hridaynath Mangeshkar was not ready to compose music for any film, but he agreed after Lata Didi persuaded him.
At that time Lata Didi was going out somewhere with singer Mukesh. Then she came to know that Hridyanath Mangeshkar has been removed from the film. At the same time, this news was presented in different ways in the newspapers. Seeing all this, Lata Didi got angry. She called Raj Kapoor and said, ‘Raj ji, you have done wrong. I had convinced brother for the film on your insistence.’
Raj Kapoor had hired Laxmikant and Pyarelal for the music of the film instead of Hridyanath Mangeshkar. Because of this, Lata Didi had even said, ‘I will not sing songs for you anymore.’
At the same time, she demanded royalty for Raj Kapoor’s songs, just like she did with other directors. She also started troubling Raj Kapoor. She used to demand more money for the songs and used to come late for the recording. Then writer Narendra Sharma (whom Lata Didi used to call Papa) said – you are the only one who can do justice to Raj Kapoor’s songs. Only then did she agree to sing for RK Films again.
Story-7- No one could attend Raj Kapoor’s Holi party without drinking alcohol and cannabis
Raj Kapoor’s Holi party is still considered one of the best Holi parties in the industry. Famous personalities of the industry definitely attended this party. Artists like Amitabh Bachchan, Pran, Kamini Kaushal, Prem Nath and Shatrughan Sinha used to come regularly to this Holi party. Along with this, all the employees associated with the film also used to come.
There was a lot of dancing and singing in the party. Raj Kapoor himself used to dance and play the dholak. Every person used to drink bhang in this party and get intoxicated. Some people even drank beer, only then they could be a part of the party.
A pond was specially made for this party. As soon as a new guest came to the party, he had to drown himself in this pond. Everyone had to drown themselves, except the women. Women played Holi only with dry colours. Raj Kapoor took special care that no one misbehaved with women in the name of Holi.
The most beautiful moment of his life was being honored with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. However, he could not celebrate the joy of this honor. While receiving the award, he had an asthma attack, then went into coma and died at the age of 63.
Note- All the facts related to this story have been taken from Raj Kapoor’s biography ‘Showman: Raj Kapoor’. It has been written by his daughter Ritu Nanda.