When Raj Kapoor revealed why he never married Nargis, said wife Krishna Raj ‘understood’: ‘Nobody cheated anybody’

Recalling his first meeting with Nargis, when she was just 16 and he was already a married man with children, Raj Kapoor said that the interaction left such an impact on him, he recreated it with his son Rishi Kapoor and actor Dimple Kapadia in the film Bobby. “She was very young. Angelic, absolutely… What a great actress she was,” he said, adding, “Films, for me, meant a complete, absolute, dedicated devotion and belonging. So, anybody and anything that revolved around it, very much became a part of my being. And I must say that (Nargis) contributed a lot to what RK (Studio) is.”

He made it clear that there was no possibility of him ever marrying Nargis, but curiously, he never mentioned her by name during the entire interview, referring to her instead as ‘the actress’. He said, “Right from the very beginning, from the word go, I drew a line. And it’s a very, very straight fact that my wife is not my actress, and my actress is not my wife. By my wife, I mean the mother of my children. So, my home life, somewhere or the other, was there. Krishna was the mother of my children. While here was my actress. She would share, and have that satisfaction of having contributed to my creativity. That is her satisfaction.”

Raj Kapoor, Nargis, Bina Rai and Premnath. (Photo: Express Archive).

He continued, “Neither did I try to put across my wife to be my actress, or my actress to be my wife. And that is one big saving grace which balanced… We kept on working over the years, with all the intensity. Because, to each his own, whatever belonged to one, one had it. One did not feel in any manner playing second fiddle, no! You are absolutely supreme where you belong. And then, another thing, the understanding part of it. Each one understood, and nobody cheated anybody. The mother of my children wasn’t meant to be my actress, so she didn’t feel cheated. I didn’t feel that way. And similarly, the actress came in to me being my actress, not the mother of my children.

Rishi Kapoor, in his autobiography Khullam Khulla, didn’t mince words while addressing his father’s affairs. He recalled leaving home with his mother, and staying in a hotel because she had decided to ‘put her foot down’ after he got involved with Vyjayanthimala. “I was very young when my father had an affair with Nargis Ji, and so was not affected by it. I don’t remember feeling anything was amiss at home either. But I do remember moving into the Natraj Hotel on Marine Drive with my mom during the time Papa was involved with Vyjayanthimala,” he wrote in the tell-all.

He also remembered how her mother greeted Nargis at his wedding with Neetu Singh. “My mother, sensing her hesitation, reportedly took her aside and said, ‘My husband is a handsome man. He is also a romantic. I can understand the attraction. I know what you are thinking, but please don’t beat yourself up over the past. You have come to my home on a happy occasion and we are here today as friends’,” he wrote.