Late legendary superstar Rajesh Khanna married veteran actor Dimple Kapadia in 1973 shortly before the release of her debut film, Raj Kapoor’s romantic drama Bobby. While he was with Kapadia, there was a rumour doing the rounds that she was seen spending a lot of time with fellow actor Raza Murad. Now, Murad has opened up on that rumour, dismissing it completely.
“There used to be a film newspaper called Urvashi. It was written there that Raza Murad and Dimple Kapadia came to Film City in the same car. Rajesh Khanna was shooting there. When he began talking to Dimple, Raza asked her to leave with him, leading to Rajesh Khanna slapping Raza Murad,” recalled Murad.
On the podcast The Filmy Charcha, Murad continued, “Neither I ever went to Film City with Dimple, nor such a situation ever happened, and never have Dimple Kapadia, Rajesh Khanna, and Raza Murad ever been in the same spot together. We used to shoot separately with Kakaji (Khanna) and Dimple. This baseless rumour didn’t have even 1% truth in it. It was a 100% lie.”
Murad then recollected meeting the journalist, who wrote the article, at a film party. “I didn’t even make a mention of that to them. I just met them like the way I always did. Because when you’re at someone’s party, you don’t have the right to ruin that. It was possible I’d have entered into an argument, or even a brawl, with them, since they made such a damaging allegation towards me. But since it was someone else’s party, there shouldn’t be any bitterness or misbehaviour there. So I remained completely normal,” said Murad.
Murad has worked with Kapadia in films like Feroz Khan’s Janbaaz (1986), David Dhawan’s Aag Ka Gola (1989), Babbar Subhash’s Pyaar Ke Naam Qurbaan (1990), Mahesh Bhatt’s Gunaah (1993), and Ajay Kashyap’s Pathreela Rasta (1994). Meanwhile, Murad and Khanna have collaborated on Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Namak Haraam (1973), Tyaag (1977), Tinku (1977), Oonche Log (1985), Adhikar (1986), Begunaah (1991), and Riyasat (2014).
Khanna and Kapadia separated in 1984, but got legally divorced only in 2012. Kapadia, who had quit films after her wedding to Khanna, returned to become a formidable lead actor in the 1980s. She continues to act in films and shows till today. Khanna passed away in 2012. They have two daughters who are former actors as well — author and columnist Twinkle Khanna and Rinke Khanna.
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Rajesh Khanna’s misbehaviour towards anyone who came close to Kapadia is rather well-documented. In his 2016 memoir Khullam Khulla, Kapadia’s first co-star from Bobby and late actor Rishi Kapoor confessed he never liked Rajesh Khanna. Kapoor admitted he was possessive about Kapadia since she was his first heroine. She’d stolen a ring of Kapoor, but when Rajesh Khanna saw that ring on Kapadia’s finger while proposing to her, he threw it away. That really angered Kapoor and further deepened his dislike towards Rajesh Khanna.
