Raj Kapoor battled depression during Prithviraj Kapoor’s cancer; was broke after Mera Naam Joker; ‘He was abusing Jesus’ photo; was Hindu but believed in all religions,’ says family friend |

Raj Kapoor is called ‘The Showman’ and rightly so, because the kind of movies he made and also starred in, were far from what anyone had ever seen. He broke stereotypes and took risks. Of course, his risks didn’t always pay off but he bounced back and how. After his dream project, ‘Mera Naam Joker’ was a flop at the box office, he suffered severe financial losses and while everyone thought, there was no coming back from there, he gave a huge hit like ‘Bobby’. However, it was an extremely challenging phase for him as along with the failure of ‘Mera Naam Joker’, Raj Kapoor also dealt with his father Prithviraj Kapoor’s cancer. In a recent interview, author, fashion designer and entrepreneur Bina Ramani who was deeply involved with the Kapoor family has opened up on it. She said on ANI’s podcast, “In those days, my then husband Andy Ramani had a job with Air India, in New York. I had two little children. Raj Kapoor was broke. ‘Mera Naam Joker’ had flopped badly and his father was sick with cancer in the hospital. For Andy to get to the office, he would have to take buses, Raj also took buses.” She further revealed that he slept on the floor in her house in San Fransisco. “He denied taking a cab and said ‘I don’t know how long father will be here, it would be expensive’. He had run out of money by then. Some money that the Hindujas had from Sangam, they owed him, they didn’t pay him completely, that let him down very badly at this particular time, for a good six weeks or so.” Ramani added further, “I had two bedrooms, it was for my two children and Andy, me. There was no dining area, just open space, no walls. I cooked for him, there were 1-2 Indian dhabas as well. He would sleep on the mattress, always on the floor. My toddlers played with him, he loves children.”Bina further recalled an incident when she saw Kapoor abusing a photo of Jesus once. When asked if he was a Hindu, she responded, “He was a Hindu, but he believed in Islam as well. He was a man of multiple facets. He had Sai baba’s picture, a little Ganesh ji, and a photograph of Jesus in a frame. At one night, he was yelling and I came out to see what happened. He was in distress most of the time after getting bad news from the hospital. He was fed up, his father wasn’t getting better, that too added up.” She elaborated, “So, he had Jesus’ picture in his hand and was completely abusing him, in Hindi and English. I asked him, he said that ‘I have loved him, have given my full love to him, he has returned his love to me, how dare he let me down?’ He had the thinking that if you don’t talk to your God, no one will listen to you.”During this chat, she also revealed that she had bought the costumes for ‘Bobby’ for Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia. She said, “I bought the costumes for Bobby. There was a cheap store called Alexander children’s clothes where I used to shop for my children so I thought of checking it out. And, for about 500 dollars, we got Chintu as well as Dimple’s clothes. The knot blouses, shorts, Chintu’s polka dotted shirts, and a lot of others.”