The Kapoors are what we would say in millennial parlance – the OGs of Bollywood. They came, they established their reign and have since enjoyed unprecedented popularity. Raj Kapoor was a phenomenon. The least we can say is that he was loved and respected around the world and his fandom was considerable. At an event, Rishi Kapoor shared some anecdotes about the legend that was Raj Kapoor, where his fans in Moscow lifted a taxi in which he was traveling on their shoulders. On his 34th death anniversary, we shed some light on what led to the incident.
As quoted in a major entertainment daily, Rishi Kapoor started talking about the incident. He shared, “Raj Kapoor was filming Mera Naam Joker and I think it was in the mid-1960s when he was negotiating with a Russian circus to be in the film. He was in London and he must have been in Moscow, Russia for sure. – which was then the Soviet Union. But he didn’t have a visa to enter Moscow. Yet they took him in. There was no welcoming committee for him because he landed in the out of the blue. So he went out and waited for a taxi. At that point, “people began to recognize that Raj Kapoor is in Moscow. His taxi arrived and he sat down. Suddenly, what he saw was that the taxi was not moving forward, but climbing. People took the car on their shoulders. “
Also, he added, “much later, in the mid-1980s, we didn’t really have a big connection with China. So China asked the Indian government to allow Raj Kapoor to go there. When the ministry spoke to Raj Kapoor, he got excited as a young boy. He was very fond of Chinese food. He told my mother, Krishna Kapoor, that I am going to China and you are coming with me. After five or 10 days, he became a little sullen. He told my mother that, “No, I will not go to China”. When she asked why, he said that the Chinese people had seen Raj Kapoor 1950s – the young handsome guy. Now I’m old and fat, so I don’t want to break their hearts with that look. He never went to China after that.”
Among the gems that Raj Kapoor delivered, Mera Naam Joker is celebrated as a milestone in Indian cinema. Other titles in his filmography include Shree 420, Awaara, Satyam Shivam Sundaram and Bobby to name a few.
