Subhash K Jha goes back in time to write about Raj Kappor, Nargis and Dimpla Kapadia connection

When rumours of Dimple Kapadia being  Nargis’ daughter abounded and upset Sanjay Dutt

After Raj Kapoor’s teenage love story Bobby became a blockbuster in 1973 and Dimple Kapadia became a nationwide rage, a sordid rumour was started regarding Dimple’s parentage.

It was whispered that Dimple was actually the love-child of Raj Kapoor and Nargis.

For those who came in late, very late, Raj Kapoor was in a much-publicized relationship with Nargis for nearly 8 years. They moved apart only after RK made it explicitly clear that he couldn’t marry Nargis. She soon fell in love with Sunil Dutt and they remained blissfully wedded until death did they part. Nargis’ untimely dearth, that is.

The rumours of Dimple being the Awaara couple’s love -child gathered momentum because of their faint facial resemblance. Also, because the mighty showman Raj Kapoor presented Dimple in Bobby in shades of Nargis’s personalit. The sequence where Rishi Kapoor meets Dimple for the first time in Bobby was exactly the way Raj Kapoor met Nargis in real life.

Dimple had once jokingly addressed this issue in a casual conversation with me. “That was the craziest rumour I’ve heard about myself. Can you imagine, me being Sanjay Dutt’s stepsister?”

According to actor-anchor Anu Kapoor Nargis had also reacted to the rumour.

According to Kapoor, Nargis had commented, “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.”

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About The Author
Subhash K Jha

Subhash K. Jha is a veteran Indian film critic, journalist based in Patna, Bihar. He is currently film critic with leading daily The Times of India, Firstpost, Deccan chronicle and DNA News, besides TV channels Zee News and News18 India.