Rajesh Khanna Was Desperate To Work With Raj Kapoor In Satyam Shivam Sundaram, But Rishi Kapoor Made Sure That Doesn’t Happen ( Photo Credit – IMDb ; Youtube )
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Rishi Kapoor and his autobiography Khullam Khulla is a goldmine for all that happened in Bollywood in the era of 40s to 80s and early 90s. The actor in his book, revealed his illogical disliking for Rajesh Khanna and even narrated how he did not let him get cast for his father Raj Kapoor’s film Satyam Shivam Sundaram despite the Anand actor desperate to work with Raj Kapoor.
Kaka ji, as Khanna was fondly called, had an admiration for Raj Kapoor’s work, and it was vice versa. When Raj Kapoor started working on Satyam Shivam Sundaram, he offered the film to his favourite, the Bawarchi actor. However, the team, especially Raj Kapoor’s son Rishi Kapoor was not convinced if Kaka was the ideal choice to play the lead in the film.
They later, along with Rishi Kapoor, were convinced that not Rajesh Khanna but Shashi Kapoor should be cast in the film. Republic reports that at that time, Rajesh Khanna went ahead in the media and said that he did not get the part due to Rishi Kapoor.
In his autobiography Khullam Khulla, the superstar made some dark confessions about his illogical disliking towards Rajesh Khanna and confessed he played some nasty games while in the business. Rajesh Khanna, who wanted to do a film with Raj Kapoor, never got the opportunity, thanks to Chintuji. He has written that although his dad wanted to cast Khanna in Satyam Shivam Sundaram, he sabotaged his chances and influenced his father not to cast him. The role went to Shashi Kapoor in the end.
In the same book, Rishi Kapoor revealed why did he dislike Rajesh Khanna so much. He said, “He got rid of my ring, he took away my heroine, got married to her, so obviously there were enough reasons for me.”
The ring he mentioned was gifted to the Bobby actor by his then-girlfriend and while he was shooting the debut film with Dimple Kapadia, she took the ring from him and started wearing it. Rajesh Khanna, who was involved with Dimple, did not like his girl wearing Rishi Kapoor’s ring and threw it into the sea. This enraged Rishi ji for some strange reason.
Later in an interview with NDTV in 2017, the Sharmaji Namkeen actor confessed, “Dimple is going to kill me if I bring this up… But it’s fine, Kakaji is no more. I probably disliked him because he took away my heroine. So there was a kind of… I felt bad about the fact. Otherwise there was no ill feelings, I worked with him a lot. I even directed him in a film.”
Much later, Rishi Kapoor cast Rajesh Khanna in his directorial Aa Ab Laut Chalein as a sort of apology. However, Kaka ji, by that time had moved over the cold war and graciously accepted the offer.
