Which celebrated Bollywood celebrity was a horrible person in real life?

 Rajesh Khanna.

Rajesh Khanna was a superstar and superstardom was something, he couldn’t handle. At one time he was treated like a god in Indian cinema and the real problem started when he really started thinking that he is one.

Rajesh Khanna started his career from Chetan Anand’s film “Akhari Khat” which was a dud at box office. But Shakti Shamantha’s “Aaradhna” made him superstar over the night. Success got into his head. And the first victim of this was his girlfriend of seven years Anju Mahendru. After the breakup Khanna married Dimple Kapadia before the release of her first movie Bobby. The story goes that he got his baraat to go in front of Mahendru’s bungalow (which was actually Khanna’s bungalow). They did not speak for nearly 17 years after his marriage.

With success came a group of hangers on, who kept reminding Khanna that he was the superstar. “Although those were the days when Khanna was ‘friends’ with nearly all his colleagues, the regular darbar that he held at Aashirwad had only small-timers in attendance. Among those he hung out with were the producers Mohan Kumar and Johnny Bakshi, writer VK Sharma and villain Roopesh Kumar (claimed to be a cousin of Mumtaz).

These people made the things worse for him as Rajesh Khanna didn’t care anyone including these fellows when he was riding high on the stardom. He used to arrive late on sets, working with him was a huge task for directors and he mostly was introvert and quite unfriendly with his co-actors. Only after four years of his success journey, in year 1973, Amitabh Bachchan appeared in the scene featuring in blockbuster film Zanjeer. He was a boy next door types, an angry young man and people instantly liked him. He was professional, more humble and available to the producers and directors and very soon, he replaced Rajesh Khanna as the next superstar.

Almost unemployed, defeated and still stubborn Rajesh Khanna isolated himself to his house and became an alcoholic. His wife, his daughter and all the remaining family members also left him slowly and in his last days he was only seen with a nobody like “Anita Advani”. She was rumoured to be his live-in partner and the only person around him when he died.

Tragic!!! Isn’t it???

How was Kishore Kumar as a person in real life?

Kishore Kumar was a multi talented personality and a great prankster. I would like to share one of his prank which he played and still is a part of a song.

It's related to the famous song Jai Jai Shiv Shankar from the film Aap Ki Kasam, picturized on Rajesh Khanna and Mumtaz. There were some delays in shooting the song and the producer of the film, J. Omprakash used to always comment “ PACHAAS HAZAAR KHARCHA KAR DIYE", (you made me spent Rs. 50,000). Kishore Kumar picked this tagline and due to some reasons the song was recorded again.

If you listen to the song carefully (full version which has musical part in the end) the extra characters are playing music and there is a comment from Kishore Kumar “Bajao Re Bajao, Imaandaari se bajao", (play the music with honesty), followed by a giggle. What follows after

that will completely surprise you as in no way it is related to the song. Kishore Kumar clearly mentions the tagline of the producer “PACHAS HAZAAR KHARCHA KAR DIYE". He says this with so ease that no one was able to catch it.

Finally, the film released and this prank is still a part of the song. After the release of the film he revealed this fact to the producer, who could do nothing but just laugh on the entire incident.

A lesser known fact about Kishore Kumar which shows that he was not only talented but also very unpredictable. A creative person who shared good relationship, would not like interference in his work, a keen observer and so spontaneous that he was capable of creating such pranks even while recordings.

Images(s) Courtesy: Google