Raj Kapoor, one of India’s most esteemed filmmakers, played a significant role in the personal and professional lives of his family members, especially when his son Randhir Kapoor married actor Babita in 1971. Raj was supportive of their union, and when the couple welcomed their first daughter, Karisma, in 1974, the Kapoor family gathered to celebrate the new addition. However, Raj himself was notably absent, and Babita later revealed the unique condition he set for visiting his granddaughter in the hospital.
In the book Raj Kapoor: The One and Only Showman, penned by his daughter Ritu Nanda, Babita shared fond memories of Raj’s interactions with her family when she was young. She recalled that her father, Hari Shivdasani, and Raj used to play tennis together, and Raj would often visit their home afterward. Babita expressed her ambition of becoming an actor to him, to which he responded with encouragement. “I remember as a child I would sit on his lap, and he would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I would say that I wanted to be an actor and he would always encourage me and say one day I would surely be a big star,” she recalled.
Interestingly, Babita shared that her daughter Karisma, affectionately known as Lolo, also had similar conversations with her grandfather. “It is strange but Lolo (Karisma) also would be asked the same question by her grandfather! Lolo also used to say that I want to be an actor and he would say the same line that one day you will be a big star,” Babita reminisced.
Babita went on to describe the day Karisma was born at Breach Candy Hospital in 1974. She remembered that, despite the whole family being present, Raj had yet to visit. “He said that he would come to the hospital only if the newborn had blue eyes. Thank the lord that Lolo had deep blue eyes, like my father-in-law,” Babita revealed.
In the same book, Karisma also reflected on her grandfather’s influence on her acting aspirations. “As a teenager, I always said I want to work in movies, I wanted to be an actor. I remember my grandfather telling me, ‘To be an actor is not a bed of roses! If you want to be an actor, walk on the thorns and work on the soil to make the roses grow and then become an actor. You have to aim to always be the best. You should always have that ambition to be an achiever’,” she recalled.
Raj Kapoor passed away in 1988 at the age of 63, but his legacy lived on through his family. Karisma, keeping true to her grandfather’s advice, made her Bollywood debut in 1991 at the age of 17 and went on to become one of the industry’s leading stars.
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