Dimple Kapadia, who was launched by late legend Raj Kapoor in his 1973 directorial Bobby, has been a part of Hindi cinema for several decades. She was last seen in Murder Mubarak earlier this year. The veteran actress, who played a crucial role in Farhan Akhtar’s directorial Dil Chahta Hai, recently revealed that Akshaye Khanna convinced her to do the 2001 film. Kapadia called her co-star Akshaye a ‘sweetheart’.
During her latest conversation with Vogue India, Dimple Kapadia revisited her iconic looks from her illustrious acting career. Kapadia expressed that she initially didn’t wish to be a part of Dil Chahta Hai. After Akshaye Khanna insisted the veteran actress to sign the 2001 movie, she agreed to do it.
The Dil Chahta Hai actress shared that she often finds excuses not to do a film and initially decided to refuse it.
“Akshaye Khanna called me up. He was such a sweetheart. He said, ‘Please, please, do it for me’. And yeah, I said, of course. And thank god I did it because working with Zoya (Akhtar) and working with that team was completely… I think by this time, it was a different kind of generation I was working with,” Kapadia said.
The 67-year-old actress recalled that collaborating with a new generation was a “rewarding” experience and it “helped” her a lot on the sets.
Earlier, in an interview with Faye D’Souza, Farhan Akhtar spilled the beans about intially offering the role of Akash Malhotra to Akshaye Khanna. For the unintiaited, the role was eventually performed by Aamir Khan. Akshaye was later cast as Siddharth Sinha.
Farhan recounted his meeting with Akshaye and that he offered Akash’s role to him. Meanwhile, the director also approached Hrithik Roshan and Abhishek Bachchan for other two characters, Sid and Sameer (played by Saif Ali Khan).
The Dil Chahta Hai director remembered that Hrithik and Abhishek, who were newcomers back then, had some other plans. The filmmaker then showed his script to Aamir. The superstar agreed to play the character of Akash as he had performed some serious roles in his career back then.
Dimple Kapadia was paired with Akshaye Khanna in Farhan’s helmer. Kapadia played the role of Tara Jaiswal, who is older than him and is a divorcee. Aamir was romatically paired with Preity Zinta’s character Shalini. Saif was cast opposite Sonali Kulkarni as Pooja in the film.
Dil Chahta Hai explores the lives of three friends, Akash, Sid, and Sameer who goes through significant transition in their respective lives after graduating from college. The trio travel to an impromptu Goa trip after their graduation party. Dimple Kapadia’s character Tara is a turning point in their friendship, mainly affecting Akash and Sid’s bond. Akshaye’s character Sid slaps Akash and the latter goes to Sydney after their fall out.
While Akash meets Shalini in a flight, Sameer gets serious with Pooja after she breaks up with Subodh. Sid leaves the city after Tara fails to reciprocate her feelings towards him. All of them reunite after Tara gets admitted to a hospital.
On the work front, Dimple Kapadia has also worked in movies like Krantiveer, Rudaali, Pyaar Mein Twist, Ram Lakhan, Luck By Chance, Dabangg, Cocktail, Finding Fanny, Welcome Back, and Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar.
Kapadia, who was earlier married to late superstar Rajesh Khanna, has two daughters, Twinkle Khanna and Rinke Khanna.
