In today’s weekend blog, I am writing about a 1973 film that set the trend of teenage love stories in Bollywood. The film was produced and directed by the greatest showman of Bollywood Raj Kapoor, yes I am talking about the film called BOBBY. In the year 1970 Raj Kapoor’s magnum opus film which was like a semi-biographical film flopped miserably at the box office. A film which was more than 6 years in making, had a very big budget. But after the film flopped, Raj Kapoor was deep in debt, and most of his properties including RK Studios were mortgaged, Most of the Bollywood bigwigs had already written off Raj Kapoor. But Raj Kapoor had different ideas, just to prove his detractors that he is not finished, he started a low-budget film based on a teenage love story. New hero, new heroine, only big names in the film were Pran and Premnath. The film when released in 1973 took the entire nation by storm and was declared as the biggest blockbuster of that year, and Raj Kapoor was back with Big Bang.
With Bobby, Rishi Kapoor began the journey of his stardom, which lasted for more than four decades. The film Bobby proved to be the ultimate love story of the younger Indians. Here are some unknown facts about this film:
1 Raj Kapoor did not make Bobby to launch his son Rishi Kapoor. From the beginning, the film’s focus was on the leading lady, Dimple Kapadia and well, Rishi was welcome to climb on board. But he got no special treatment. His dad was busy focusing on the female lead.
2 Fifteen-year-old Dimple Kapadia was Raj Kapoor’s friend Chunnilal Kapadia’s daughter. He chose her after auditioning numerous other girls including Rishi’s future wife Neetu Singh and Pakistani singer Nazia Hassan.
3 Shailendra Singh who was chosen to be Rishi Kapoor’s voice was Raj Kapoor’s choice. He wanted a completely new voice for Rishi, but it was Lata Mangeshkar all the way for Dimple.
4 Lata Mangeshkar was 40 years old when she sang for 15-year-old Dimple. After Raj Kapoor’s 1964 release Sangam, Lata stopped giving playback to films of Raj Kapoor’s banner, and she had not sung any song for Mera Naam Joker (1970). For Bobby, Raj Kapoor only wanted Lata’s voice for Dimple. It was the music composer of Bobby Laxmikant-Pyarelal who brought about reconciliation between Raj Kapoor and Lata Mangeshkar.
5 The role that Aruna Irani played of the virgin-boy Rishi Kapoor’s seductive, sexually savvy friend was written for Rekha. She did not do the role as she found it secondary. Later after many years, Rekha acted in RK Banner film Dharam Karam.
6 There is a scene in Bobby where Aruna Irani catches Rishi Kapoor emerging from the bathroom naked. He was actually nude while doing the scene. Decades later Rishi’s son Ranbir Kapoor gave a similar shot in his debut film Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya.
7 Initially Bobby had a tragic ending with lovers drowning themselves. But the distributors threaten to drown themselves if Raj Kapoor did not change the end. Thus a blissful finale was forced on Raj Kapoor’s version of Romeo & Juliet. And the rest is history.
This was the film that re-established Raj Kapoor as Bollywood’s biggest showman. After Booby Raj Kapoor directed Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Prem Rog, and Ram Teri Ganga Maili, they all did good business at the box office and Ram Teri Ganga Maili was a blockbuster.
This film launched the career of Rishi Kapoor as the leading man, and Shailendra Singh and Narendra Chanchal as playback singers. Chanchal sang one sufi song “ Beshak Mandir Masjit Todo, Bulesha Ae Kehnda..” in the film. Dimple Kapadia got married to Rajesh Khanna before the release of Bobby and left acting. She staged a comeback in the 1985 film Saagar, again with Rishi Kapoor only. Bobby was the first film of Laxmikant-Pyarelal with the RK banner, they did two more films with Raj Kapoor ie Satyam Shivam Sundaram, and Prem Rog.
Waiting for your view on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
3rd June 2023.