Did You Know About The Tiff Between Dilip Kumar And Madhubala?
Did you know Dilip Kumar never worked with A-listers among heroines of his time, including Sadhna, Mala Sinha and Asha Parekh?
Being a combination of creativity and business, Bollywood is nothing if not a jumble of personal egos and preferences, working as per comfort levels, with parents and friends influencing choices – and equations. People talk of groupings, but we can ignore them – that is our preference!
Did you know Dilip Kumar never worked with A-listers among heroines of his time, including Sadhna, Mala Sinha and Asha Parekh? He was comfortable with other seniors like Nargis, Madhubala, Vyjayanthimala, Meena Kumari and Waheeda Rahman.
Did you know of the tiff Dilip Kumar had with Madhubala? Both were in love and wanted to marry. But Madhubala’s father was opposed to it. When he prevented her from going on outdoor shooting for ‘Naya Daur’, she was sued by director B R Chopra. Much bad blood was spilt in public and finally, B R Chopra opted for Vyjayanthimala. But the Dilip-Madhubala marriage went off. She wanted him to say ‘sorry’ to her father, which Dilip Kumar refused. They never worked together and met only at Madhubala’s deathbed. She was happy for him that he had by then married Saira Bano.
Parental possessiveness does matter. Did you know, Mrs Chakravorty, the mother of Hema Malini decided on who the daughter will work with? She was nicknamed "Hema's Amma".
Move to more recent times. Did you know that Madhuri Dixit and Amitabh Bachchan never worked together, and the cause was Anil Kapoor? Anil stood by Madhuri when most others were not willing to act with Madhuri. She was hailed only after her films with Anil became hits.
It is said that Anil had grown possessive of Madhuri and dissuaded her from acting opposite Big B. Madhuri did a special appearance with Bachchan only in their senior years. And after that, she stopped working with Anil.
Possessiveness causes heartaches and heartbreaks!
Rishi Kapoor in his autobiography Khullam Khulla confesses to his intense dislike for Rajesh Khanna – and for several reasons. Khanna had married his heroine, Dimple Kapadia, in his debut film Bobby, even before the film’s release.
He narrates how he did not let him get cast in his father Raj Kapoor’s film Satyam Shivam Sundaram, although Khanna was desperate to work with Raj Kapoor. With many flops, Khanna was having a bad time then. Rishi played the ace card. He argued that the first choice for a new RK film should go to a family member. Shashi Kapoor, who also was having a bad time, got Satyam Shivam Sundaram. An angry Rajesh Khanna told the media that he did not get the part due to Rishi Kapoor.
Rishi confesses that Rajesh had “got rid of my ring, he took away my heroine, got married to her, so obviously there were enough reasons for me.” The ring was the one Rishi had gifted Dimple and a possessive Rajesh, now the husband, had thrown it into the sea.
Mellowed as time passed, Rishi cast Rajesh Khanna in his directorial film ‘Aa Ab Laut Chalein’. Rajesh, no longer the hot shot he had earlier been, accepted the father’s role.
In Bollywood, time never stands still. Rajesh Khanna was the beneficiary when Hrishikesh Mukherjee opted for him for ‘Anand’. Did you know that the angry man then was Dharmendra, who felt that he had a greater right over the lead role after having done films like Satyakam for Mukherjee? The story goes that in a drunken state, he telephoned “Hrishi da” through the night and berated him for not giving him that role.
Like Madhuri Dixit, Kareena Kpoor Khan had also suffered (or so she felt) in her struggling days, despite her whole clan being in the films. She wanted to play Parvati in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas. She gave the audition and screen test. But Bhansali felt that Aishwarya Rai was more suited for that part. A disappointed Kareena publicly criticised Bhansali when the film became a hit.
