‘Raj Kapoor tailored my look for Bobby,’ Dimple Kapadia recalls how she went through the ‘painful’ process of getting into the look

Dimple Kapdia recalled some fond memories from her Bobby days with director Raj Kapoor.

New Delhi | October 31, 2024 10:43 AM IST

3 min read

Dimple Kapadia shares Raj Kapoor tailored her look. (Photo: IMDb)

Dimple Kapadia floored the nation with her innocence and expressive eyes in the titular role in Raj Kapoor’s Bobby. Her polka dotted blouse became started a new fashion here and is still considered as one of the most iconic outfits ever seen in Hindi cinema. In a recent interview, Dimple Kapadia shared how Raj Kapoor tailored her looks and all her outfits were imported from abroad.

In an interview with VOGUE India, the veteran actress shared, “Bobby was an iconic film. The director was so special. He tailored my entire look. I had a very small forehead and he made me take off all this and it was painful.” She added, “He gave me the widow’s peak and all my clothes were bought from abroad. He was very fond of Archies, the comics.” The iconic looks of Bobby were inspired by characters from Archie comics.

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Dimple often shares fond memories of being cast in her debut role. Previously, talking to FICCI Flo Jaipur Chapter, Dimple recalled how a setback actually set her up for Bobby. She said, “I was suffering from leprosy at that time. I was about 12 years old. I had it on my elbow. So this man (a family friend), turned around and said, ‘I’ll see that you get ostracised from school’. That was the first time I heard that word. I didn’t even know what that meant.” She added, “Raj Kapoor wanted to meet this girl. He was told there is this beautiful girl and she is suffering from leprosy. Out of this kind of a setback, there was a lot to gain and that’s how I got Bobby.”

The actress then detailed her journey to bagging the role. She said, “I remember reading a newspaper in school which said that Raj Kapoor is looking for a girl for Bobby. I said to my friends that ‘I am Bobby’. Then I went for the test and I got rejected because he said ‘you look much older than Chintu (Rishi Kapoor). Unn dino main kitab mein likti thi (Those days I would write in a notebook). I used to fill up my notebooks with Ram Ram Ram Ram. I thought aise kaise ho gaya yeh (How did this happen).”

Bobby, released in 1973, also marked the debut of Rishi Kapoor. Bobby was Dimple Kapadia’s only film in the 1970s as she left acting after her marriage with Rajesh Khanna. She made a comeback in the 1980s with Ramesh Sippy’s Saagar.

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