Flashback Friday: When Nargis reacted to rumours of Dimple Kapadia being her illegitimate child!

When we talk about legendary screen pairs- names like Dilip Kumar-Vyjayanthimala, Dharmendra-Hema Malini, Rajesh Khanna-Sharmila Tagore, Rishi Kapoor-Neetu Singh, Amitabh Bachchan-Rekha, Anil Kapoor-Madhuri Dixit, Shahrukh Khan-Kajol undeniably pops up into the mind. And it is notable that this list starts with the iconic screen pairing of Raj Kapoor and Nargis. Together they did many films out of which films like 'Barsaat', 'Awara', 'Shree 420', 'Chori Chori' and 'Andaz' are considered to be one of their finest works. In his interviews, Raj Kapoor often shared the incident of meeting Nargis for the first time. It was a wonderful memory where Raj Kapoor went to her house to sign her for his directorial debut film ‘Aag’ (1947). The moment he rang the bell, Nargis was frying bhajias in the kitchen and came to open the door as there was no one else at home. The sight of Raj Kapoor made her bit nervous, due to which she ended up smudging dough across her forehead. Though the media, was not fascinated by this story and kept speculating rumours related to Raj Kapoor's affair with Nargis. This gossip faded out by the release of Raj Kapoor's directed film 'Bobby' (1973).

'Bobby' was a huge hit which introduced Raj Kapoor's second son Rishi Kapoor along with a new girl Dimple Kapadia. The movie was in news due to its path-breaking performances by the newbies- Rishi Kapoor's lover boy image, Dimple's boldness along with her marriage to the superstar Rajesh Khanna, music and many more. Along with these positive reactions, also came a terrifying rumor of Dimple Kapadia being the illegitimate child of Raj Kapoor and his rumoured love interest Nargis. In the movie 'Bobby', Raj Kapoor kept Dimple's introduction scene in the same style like how he had met Nargis for the first time. Some of the old gossip mongers remembered Raj Kapoor sharing this incidence with them and thus started finding a striking resemblance between Dimple Kapadia and young Nargis. Old gossip articles were re-visited with a new angle attached to it. In spite of becoming an overnight sensation, Dimple left the film industry to lead her newly married life with Rajesh Khanna. This motivated more publications to cash-in over this new found sensational story and kept running it for months and years. Dimple Kapadia, Rishi Kapoor, Raj Kapoor and Nargis ignored these low-level journalism for a long time, until one day when Nargis came out with her final verdict over this scandalous story.

Nargis fell in love with Sunil Dutt and later married him. Together they had two daughters (Priya and Namrata) and one son (Sanjay). She had retired from acting and was leading a happily married life. She was though in news for her social works due to which a top publication decided to take her interview. The interview was mainly related to Nargis's social work and her life as a wife and a mother. Towards the end of the interview Nargis was asked to comment over the rumours of Dimple Kapadia being the love child of her and Raj Kapoor. She had an option to avoid this question like how she had been doing in the past. But this time, Nargis chose to answer it by saying 'How, when, why these rumours started, I haven’t the faintest idea. All I can say is, whoever started them is a rotter with a very dirty mind. Just because Raj Kapoor’s conception of Dimple as ‘Bobby’ resembled what I played in ‘Awara’ and because of few similarities here and there. It’s not enough to jump to stupid conclusions. God forbid, but if such had been the case, I would never have disowned a daughter of mine. Dimple has been a very wise girl to treat the whole thing as a big joke. As for me and my family, my husband has ignored the whole thing, my daughters laughed it off. Only my son Sanjay was upset, but he’ll grow out of it. I don’t want to give it any more importance by speaking about it. I don’t want to feed such malicious gossip. I want it to die a natural death'.

This statement of hers was more than enough for all those who believed in yellow journalism. As for the readers who believed in it, regretted after reading that how such stories had affected the young Sanjay Dutt and diminished one of their favourite screen pairs.  

Fun Facts –

- Raj Kapoor and Nargis worked in sixteen films. Their association started with ‘Aag’ (1947) and ended with ‘Jagte Raho’ (1956).

- Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia were part of around seven films, right from ‘Bobby’ (1973) till Patiala House (2011).

- Rishi Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt worked in several films including ‘Hathyar’ (1989), ‘Sahibaan’ (1993) and Agneepath (2012).