Neetu Kapoor felt ‘threatened’ that Rishi Kapoor was working with ‘more than a friend’ Dimple Kapadia in Saagar, years after rumours of an affair

Rishi Kapoor said that he had some ‘reservations’ about doing Saagar, as he was going to reunite with Dimple Kapadia after nearly a decade.

After Bobby, Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia reunited with the 1985 film Saagar. (Photo: IMDb)

Late actor Rishi Kapoor had opened up about his wife Neetu feeling “threatened” when he re-teamed with his Bobby co-star Dimple Kapadia for the 1985 film Saagar.

Shortly after the release of their debut film Bobby in 1973, Dimple married actor Rajesh Khanna and quit acting in the same year.

Saagar marked a comeback for Dimple, who was returning to films two years after her separation from the legendary Khanna, affectionately known as Kaka.

By then, she had two daughters, Twinkle Khanna and Rinke Khanna.

In his autobiography Khullam Khulla, Rishi Kapoor had revealed how, years into his marriage, Neetu confided in him that the only time she felt threatened was when he worked with Dimple in Saagar.

“But she needn’t have worried,” he wrote. “Dimple was a friend, even if she may have been a little more than that during Bobby. Ten years had gone by; she was coming out of a marriage with two children of her own, and I was also well settled with two kids. I have never let Neetu down in our marriage. I am a happily married man with a loving and supportive wife. Neetu is not only my wife, she is also a friend.”

He continued, “If ever there were any ripples in our relationship, it was because of me, never her. And even then, the reasons had nothing to do with another woman in my life. She has been a rock and stood by me in my weakest moments. If there was an Oscar for the best partner, for being with someone for better or for worse in every sense of the word, she would get it.”

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The actor, who passed away in 2020, had written that he met Dimple socially a few times while she was still married to Rajesh Khanna, but it was a “rocky marriage.”

By the time she returned to films, Rishi and she were different people.

“She was stunning even then, but had lost her flamboyance and confidence. She also felt the need to assert that she was a great actress. I could see her trying too hard to live up to her image in Bobby, but it wasn’t necessary. She was only twenty-five and very beautiful. Here, I must mention how much a source of strength her sister Simple was to her at this point. She constantly motivated Dimple and helped her emerge from this phase. Many years later, we did another film, Pyaar Mein Twist (2005).”

Rishi Kapoor said he did have some “reservations” about doing Saagar, as he was going to reunite with Dimple.

The actor wrote he reached out to Rajesh Khanna, asking him whether it was okay for him to do the film with Dimple.

Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia in a still from Saagar. (IMDb)“If I remember right, he got back to me saying that if I didn’t do the film, someone else would. In any case, I was more worried about what Neetu would think of my working with Dimple after all these years,” he wrote, recalling that any speculation about the affair that he supposedly had with Dimple were long dead.

But when Saagar was being made in 1984, he was just four years into his marriage with Neetu, while Dimple had separated from Rajesh.

“Neetu must have had some reservations, but she was very dignified about the whole thing. It is to her credit that she didn’t put her foot down and allowed me to do Saagar,” he wrote.

Directed by Ramesh Sippy, Saagar also starred Kamal Haasan, and was a huge hit at the box office.