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Many of Rajesh Khanna’s contemporaries made no bones about their dislike for the superstar. After his passing, several others have come forward with stories of his tardiness and perceived arrogance, especially during his heyday in the 1970s. In his autobiography, Rishi Kapoor admitted that he had an ‘illogical’ dislike for Khanna, and that he had even gone so far as to join forces with members of his family and dissuade his father, Raj Kapoor, from casting him in the film Satyam Shivam Sundaram.
He said that he couldn’t explain why he didn’t like Khanna, but felt the need to come clean to him years later. Before Khanna passed in 2012, Rishi Kapoor spoke to him about the past, and confessed that he objected to his casting in Satyam Shivam Sundaram. But he said that his dislike was partially justified, as he had seen ‘Kaka’ disrespect his legendary father on the sets of the film Bobby, in which Rishi starred alongside Dimple Kapadia. Dimple, then a teenager, married Khanna while making Bobby and was allowed to finish filming it only with his permission. Rishi didn’t appreciate his father being put in a position like that.
He wrote, “No one really liked Rajesh Khanna in those days. I had seen him ridicule my father during an outdoor shoot of Bobby. Dimple was married to him by then and my father had to seek his permission to film the remaining scenes with her. I had to see my father fawn over him. That unpleasant memory stayed with me and I feared a repeat of such scenes if Kaka-ji joined the cast. Still, I have to concede that he was genuinely fond of Papa and would have given anything to have a Raj Kapoor film on his resume.”
Rajesh Khanna with Raj Kapoor and Sanjay Khan. (Photo: Express Archive)
Confessing that the rumours about a faction of Kapoors protesting against Khanna’s casting were true, he added, “I was one of those who objected to Kaka-ji being cast in the film. It is not something I am proud of and later admitted as much to Kaka-ji before he died. We talked about it during the making of Aa Ab Laut Chalen, the film I directed, in which I had cast him in an important role.”
Rishi admitted that he couldn’t think of a logical reason behind his dislike for Rajesh Khanna. “He did me no harm and I can see today that it was all my doing. So why did I dislike him?” he wondered. Rishi Kapoor passed away in 2020 after a two-year battle with cancer. His final film was Sharmaji Namkeen.
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