Aur Raj Kapoor Ne Prem Chopra Ko Amar Kar Diya!

Ali Peter John

Raj Kapoor had established himself as the greatest showman of the Indian film industry with great films like "Awara", "Shri 420" , " Jaagte Raho", " Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai" and "Sangam". He had one big ambition and that was to make an autobiography film about his life and the women in his life.

He asked his trusted writer, K. A Abbas to write a script based on a life of a joker and his three love affairs. They together decided to call it "Mera Naam Joker". It was planned to be made on a massive scale and most of it was to be shot on real locations inside a circus. Raj had decided to make it his do or die film and assembled a cast of himself as the usual Raju, Simi Garewal, Padmini from the South and a Russian actress. He had big stars like Manoj Kumar, Dharmendra, Rajendra Kumar and Dara Singh to make guest appearances and his favourite music directors Shankar-Jaikishan to score the music.

The film was released to a world wide audience, but it fell flat on the very first day and was considered to be the biggest flop ever. Raj Kapoor was ruined, his bungalow in Deonar in Chembur and R. K Studios were mortgaged and Raj Kapoor kept wallowing in misery and kept getting drunk day and night, till he realised that the show had to go on as one of the song in "Mera Naam Joker" said.

He realised that the only man who could save him was the writer, K. A Abbas who had given him all the fame and fortune with the scripts he wrote for him and he continued to have faith in Abbas and took on all the blame for the flopping of "Mera Naam Joker".

One afternoon, he climbed up the five stairs to reach the office of Abbas at North Bombay Housing Society in Juhu. He was drunk and Abbas refused to talk to him and even led him down the stairs and left him in his car and asked him to meet him only when he was sober.

The next day, a sober Raj Kapoor went up to Abbas and touched his feet and told him how he was a ruined man and that he could only be saved by him  ( Abbas). He told Abbas that he had a handsome young son called Rishi Kapoor who he wanted to launch in a love story and that he had also found the sixteen year old daughter of his friend, Chunibhai Kapadia, Dimple Kapadia as the female lead. The girl had some kind of a striking resemblance to Nargis who had played the heroine in more than fifteen films with Raj Kapoor. There were all kinds of stories about Dimple being the daughter of Raj and Nargis which was a story some believed, but most only took in their stride.

Raj was in such a bad state that he requested his friend, Pran and his brother-in-law Premnath to play key roles as the father of the boy and the girl in the film which Abbas decided to call "Bobby" without having any idea of what the name was going to do for Raj and every single artists and technicians of the film.

Raj had an idea which he exchanged with Abbas and Abbas who was otherwise very rigid about any change in his script agreed to Raj idea.

Raj wanted to have the popular villain, Prem Chopra to make a one scene appearance in the film in which he had to play the real life Prem Chopra and speak only one line, " Prem, Prem Naam hai mera, Prem Chopra". Prem was caught in a fix. He was the leading young villain of the time and he was worried about this kind of a role affecting his career. He consulted his brother-in-law and the brother-in-law of Raj Kapoor, Premnath and asked him if he should do the role or politely turn it down. But, Premnath told him not to give up the opportunity and play the role as Raj passed him to. Premnath told Prem that the one line he would speak in "Bobby" would give him a new phase in his career and make him popular for a very very long time. Prem agreed to do the role and spoke that one line the way Raj asked him to and after "Bobby" was released, he was better known for that one line than the 500 odd films he had done. He is 83 now, he is still healthy enough to play roles in films and take part in shows and events all over the world, but wherever he goes and whatever he has being doing for almost fifty years, he is always welcomed, greeted, applauded and known by several generations only by that one line." Prem, Prem Naam hai mera, Prem Chopra".

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