When Rajesh Khanna said he ‘wouldn’t have stopped’ Dimple Kapadia from acting if he knew of her talent: ‘Wanted a mother for my children’

When Rajesh Khanna married Dimple Kapadia before the release of her debut film Bob, it was known that this could possibly be the end of Dimple’s career. The world was yet to see her work, but her career was already seen like it was over. Years later, Kaka confessed that he “had no idea of Dimple’s talent” but there was a reason as to why he did not want his wife to work.
In a 1990 interview with Movie magazine, the Amar Prem actor was asked about the sudden halt in Dimple’s career after the two got married. Rajesh said that he “had no problems” with his wife working but he did not want his children to be “brought up servants.” He said, “I had no problems about my wife working. But when I married Dimple, I wanted a mother for my children. I didn’t want them to be brought up servants. And I had no idea of Dimple’s talent; Bob was still not released.”
Rajesh and Dimple separated in 1982, and she returned to the movies in 1985, with Ramesh Sippy’s Sagar marking her return to Bollywood. At the time of the interview, their daughter Twinkle Khanna had still not made her way into the movies but Kaka said that if she wanted to act, he would be happy to produce a film for her. He shared that Twinkle had called him out on favouring her acting career, but putting a stop to her mother’s career.

He said, “Recently when I told one of my daughters Twinkle, that if she would like to act in a film, I would produce one for her. She said, ‘You will let me act but to mummy you say no.’ I said, ‘For the simple reason that I am your father and not your husband’.” He added that he “did not want to repeat the same make.”
The Bawarchi actor shared that if he had known about Dimple’s talent, he would have never stopped her from pursuing her career. “Besides, if I knew at that moment that Bob would prove her talent, I wouldn’t have stopped her. To curb talent is cruel. the time I saw Bob our first daughter was already born,” he said. In 1990, Rajesh Khanna co-produced film Jai Shiv Shankar, directed S.A. Chandrashekhar, starred him and Dimple alongside Jeetendra, Poonam Dhillon among others.