The Auto Was A Luxury For Raaj Kumar And…

Ali Peter John

My friend, Kulbushan Gupta was taking what many called a great risk, a film called “God And Gun” with the man who was known for his eccentric ways, Raaj Kumar with Jackie Shroff as his co-star.

Kulbushan had “survived” even after completing the shooting of the film. The dubbing had to be done only in Rajendra Kumar’s Dimple Studios on Pali Hill. Kulbushan who was a very close friend (and still is) had assigned the duty of bringing Raaj Kumar from his bungalow in Worli to the recording studios. We had a long talk as we drove in his classic car, the kind of model which had gone out of vogue. He specially talked about how people thought he was a fool or a mad man, but he said, the day those people know the reality about him. They would know a very different Raaj Kumar…

We reached the junction where the popular Lucky Restaurant has been standing for more than fifty years and his car which looked like a mini-ship broke down and his driver, Panditji who was the only man who was allowed to touch the car panicked.

Jaani (as he was popularly called and he called others) jumped out of his car with me following and halted an auto and before I could know what he was. The auto driver looked both bewildered and shocked and was drivnig like a drunken man and Raaj Kumar said '" Jaani, tum itna hil kyun rahe ho, mushkil hai toh yaha aakar bhaito, hum chalayenge". By the time the driver could react, we had reached "Dimple Studio and Raaj Kumar handed over a 500 hundred rupee note to the driver who couldnt believe his eyes. and no one could believe what Raaj Kumar had done, but then, these were the kind of eccentricity that made him The Raaj Kumar"

It was not the end. He saw the framed photograph of Rajendra Kumar who was his co-star in "Mother India" and "Dil Ek Mandir". He stepped back and took of his fancy foot wear and then asked his man, "Arre, tumne mujhe bataya kyun nahi ki yeh gaye". It was Raaj Kumar at his sarcastic best.And the next day Rajendra Kumar took off his photograph from that place on the wall.

There can never be a more sane man than Raajkumar, but he was called an insane and extremely eccentric man and he enjoyed this image of his and did not let anyone know the truth about him till the very end and was eccentric even when he was dying and told his family to let the industry know about his death only after he was cremated.

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