Rajendra Kumar Birth Anniversary: The Curious Case Of Dimple Continues And Goes Strong...

Ali Peter John

Rajendra Kumar Tuli was one of the lakhs of refugees who had crossed over from Pakistan. He and his family went without food or water for several days. He finally reached Bombay and had the ambitions to be an actor. He started living at the Marina Guest House outside Bandra Station. He got his first break as a hero in “Vachan” directed by Devendra Goel and the Film was a hit and he was a star. His next big film was “Mother India” in which he played the good son. He was soon in demand as a romantic hero.

He was married and had to have a house. A friend told him about an old bungalow facing the sea on Carter Road in  Bandra. No one was willing to buy the bungalow because it was called a Bhoot Bangla. Kumar was desperate and asked his friend to negotiate with the owners. The  bungalow was on sale for just 65000/-. He had only 10,000/- rupees with him. He was offered a film by B.R Chopra but nothing was finalized. He went to Chopra and said he was willing to do two films for B.R Films, “Dhool Ka Phool” and “Kanoon” but he wanted  50,000/- immediately . Chopra did not hesitate and paid him the full amount in cash with which he went to the owner and bought  the bungalow and got it renovated and decided to name it “Dimple”  after his only daughter whose name was Dimple .

The buying of the bungalow changed his life within years and he was known as the Jubilee Kumar and was the highest paid actor , more than Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand  and Raj Kapoor . Together with being a big star , he was also a very clavier businessman and invested his money in other Industries.

In the seventies , there was a new star called Rajesh Khanna who had heard about how the bungalow called “Dimple” had proved very lucky for Rajendra Kumar. To his good luck , it was also the time when Kumar built his new bungalow on Pali Hill which also had a sound and recording studio and the bungalow and studio were both named after Dimple. Rajesh Khanna moved heaven and earth to raise the money to buy the bungalow and paid kumar whatever price he asked for. Khanna also wanted the name “Dimple”. But Kumar refused to give him the name. it was in this same bungalow which Khanna named “Aashirwad” that   Rajesh Khanna rose to become India’s first Superstar. It was also in this bungalow that he saw his fall like no other star had fallen and it was also the bungalow in which he died at a comparatively young age. Today that bungalow has made way for another massive construction and even the new bungalow Rajendra had built and the studio have been demolished. That is the tragedy behind two of the biggest superstars of Indian cinema.

DIMPLE PATEL, THE REAL STORY

Dimple, the name was destined to find a place in the history of the entertainment businesses.

Rajesh Khanna was at the peak of his career when he bought "Dimple" from Rajendra Kumar and gave it the name Aashirwad hoping for the bungalow to shower him with blessings like it had showered Rajendra Kapoor. It did, but not for long. He had married a 16 year old Dimple Kapadia who had become an overnight sensation after "Bobby" and had given up what could be a flourishing career,  but she gave up everything just to be Mrs. Rajesh Khanna, something which every girl of her age wanted to be. They had two daughters, Twinkle and Rinkle. They faced stormy weather after their dream marriage and ultimately seperated.

On the other hand, Rajendra Kumar's daughter, Dimple in whose name he did everything grew up and was sent to the best school and the best college from which she graduated. She had many ambitions, but her father, like his best friend, Raj Kapoor was deadly against their daughters getting into films. Kumar got Dimple married to a rich young businessman from East Africa and Dimple had to live the rest of her life as Mrs. Dimple Patel.

Her husband, Mr. Raju Patel had very strong links with the Hindi film industry and had even got into business deals with them.

He hosted events in which all the big Bollywood stars were ever willing to participate and they were also paid very well. Mr. Raju Patel was interested in getting into the business of making films. He started of by being one of the partners in the making of a film called "Khantee" , the other partners being Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar , Suneil Shetty and other stars. The most of the film was shot in the house of the Patels.

Raju had greater ambitions as he had very good contacts with stars in Hollywood and Bollywood. Michael Jackson was one of his close friends and wanted to make a Hindi film with Raju Patel as his partner. Jackson also told the Patels that he would like to have an Indian wife. But all this was only one big dream. Raju Patel was soon diagnosed for colon cancer and he died of it at a very young age. The Michael Jackson myth also failed when he suddenly died and it was proved that his entire body had gone to waste because of his heavy dependence on various drugs and tablets. He was found to be all bones and was completely bald, most of which was hidden from th media to keep the myth alive.

Dimple had several meetings with Micheal Jackson and was his friend till he died and she is now back in Mumbai and lives with her two sons in the building that has come up where Rajendra Kumar's "Dimple'" once stood.

Dimple and Raju took all the care of Rajendra Kumar's when he too was diagnosed for cancer and spent the last days of his life with them in their house. It was while he was living with them that Dimple made arrangements to have long conversations with him and taped them. A. few months later Rajendra Kumar died in Bombay.

Dimple has now used all the tapes and has put a writer to write a book about her father . The publishers are waiting for Dimple and the writer to give the book the final touches and hope to release the book in another few months. The new generation will hardly know anything about the magic of Rajendra Kumar, but the history of Hindi cinema will be incomplete without the story of the only "Jubilee Kumar", the kind of star who is and will always be in a class of his own.

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