Raj Kapoor had Lata in mind for 'Satyam Shivam Sunderam'

Lata Mangeshkar was the inspiration behind Raj Kapoor's 'Satyam Shivam Sundaram' and he wanted to cast her in the 1978 R K Banner film, reveals Raj Kapoor's daughter Ritu Nanda in her latest book.

"I visualised the story of a man falling for a woman with an an ordinary countenance but a golden voice and wanted to cast Lata Mangeshkar in the role," the book quotes Raj Kapoor as saying. He believed that love and faith were contingent on purity of any relationship not on beauty.

The book 'Raj Kapoor' further says that Lata who had initially agreed to act in the film later declined the offer.

The book, which is a Hindi version of 2002 published book 'Raj Kapoor Speaks,' released recently at a function held in the capital.

The book talks at length about Raj Kapoor's relationships with his female co-stars particularly his bonding and later estrangement with Nargis.

"Raj Kapoor's egoistic tendencies and the futility of the future of their relationship made the ending of the relationship inevitable," believes the author.

Raj Kapoor later recalled, accepting 'Mother India' was probably the toughest decision for Nargis. She had to decide whether to continue a relationship with Raj Kapoor without any future or to create a new life for her by leaving R K Studio, Ritu says.

Although Raj Kapoor never defined their relationship, he once said, "We understood each other. I can not express my feelings towards her. No, it was not love, although I liked her very much. Probably it was a great emotional bonding of two great artists."

A rare photo of all the singers together in the early years of their singing careers ! Can you spot( front row) Zohra Jan, Rajkumari, Amirbai Karnatki, Hamida Banu, Geeta Roy (later Geeta Dutt), Lata Mangeshkar, Meena Kapoor,(and standing behind) Sailesh Mukherjee, Talat Mahmood, Dilip Dholakia, Mohd. Rafi, Shiv Dayal Batish, G.M. Durrani,
Kishore Ganguli (later Kishore Kumar), and Mukesh.

Lata Mangeshkar, Nargis, David, Jairaj, Talat Mahmood and kneeling down are Raj Kapoor and Majnu...