Raj Kapoor Could Have Married Nargis

'Those were not kind days for a woman with a break-up.'

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Among the few who knew iconic actress Nargis best is her niece and former actress Zaheeda (Anokhi Raat, Prem Pujari, Gambler).

"The love in her eyes when she looks at Raj Kapoor! I challenge any artiste of today to emote like that with just their eyes,”

Did you grow up living in the same house as your aunt Nargis?

All of us lived together as one big, happy joint family in Marine Drive’s Chateau Marine building (on Marine Drive, South Mumbai). Nargisji lived with my grandparents, my father (Nargis’ brother Akhtar Hussain) and his family as well as (actor) Anwar uncle's family. It was a huge 3,000 square foot flat, and Nargisji had one bedroom to herself.

She was already a huge star. Could you walk into her room anytime?

Of course! When I returned home from school, I would enter her room and see the beautiful cotton sari which she had worn to the studio and which was now kept for dry-cleaning.

She never left home without applying perfume, so I would pick the sari and smell the perfume...

How involved was she in your life?

I loved my aunt, and she loved me and my sisters Rehana and Shahida. She would put me on her shoulders and enter the swimming pool at the CCI, then throw me into the deep and challenge me to swim. She also taught me ballroom dancing and how to use the soup spoon, dessert spoon etc.

Were there no starry airs at home?

She was a simple woman which simple tastes. Her favourite food was bhindi and she could take a plate and eat while sitting on the floor. She could take a chatai and sleep on the floor. She was just Baby which is what she was called by the whole family because she was the youngest. But we sisters and cousins called her Pappo because when we were young, we couldn't say Fufi (aunt) and we ended up enunciating it as Pappo.

Nargis never considered living independently?