Massive crowds stopped Prem Chopra’s train at every station, asked him to perform: ‘Raj Kapoor didn’t tell me…’

Prem Chopra said that he was asked to give a mini performance at every train station where people crowded to watch him.

New Delhi | July 23, 2024 03:31 PM IST

3 min read

Prem Chopra played the villain in Raj Kapoor's Bobby.

Prem Chopra was known for playing villainous roles throughout his career in Hindi movies but to date, the actor is remembered for playing the villain in Raj Kapoor’s Bobby where he had one dialogue “Prem naam hai mera, Prem Chopra.” The dialogue stuck with him and is still synonymous with his name. In a recent chat with Bollywood Bubble, Prem recalled an incident where he was traveling via train but the train was stopped at every station because of the massive crowd that had gathered to see him.

He recalled, “People got to know that I was in this train. Even though it was a fast train, they had to stop it at every station because every station had so much crowd and they requested me to say this dialogue at every station. They said the crowd won’t let the train move so please say this dialogue at every station. This went on through the train journey.” Chopra recalled that everyone wanted him to say his iconic dialogue in his style at every station and they really rejoiced when he gave them a mini-performance at every station.

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Prem also spoke about the time when he was offered this role in Bobby and said that Raj Kapoor, the director of the film, didn’t tell him anything about until he got on set. Chopra recalled that he asked Kapoor about his role many times but he was only told, “Batayenge (I’ll tell).” “If you asked him at night, he would be drunk and say ‘arey yaar batayenge, tumhe bol dia batayenge‘,” he shared.

When he reached for the shoot in Pune, Prem learnt that he had only one dialogue in the film and he had his reservations about it. “I had a reservation before doing this role. I said that I am working in films with Yash Chopra, BR Chopra and Shakti Samantha where I am getting the role that is just as important as the lead actor. I hope I don’t get to a place where they also start offering me guest appearances.,” he said. But soon after he spoke about his reservations, veteran actor Prem Nath reassured him that this would work out in his favour, and so it did.

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