India's first superstar, Rajesh Khanna, immortalized in bronze

A galaxy of stars descended at Bandra to witness the unveiling of Rajesh Khanna’s statue and pay a befitting tribute to the phenomenon that he was. The star-studded function saw superstar Akshay Kumar along with his wife Twinkle and mother-in-law Dimple Kapadia unveiling the bronze statue which has been carved out to resemble the iconic ‘Anand’ pose with two balloons in his right hand. This statue will later be installed by UTV at Bandra Bandstand promenade. Speaking on the occasion, a moist-eyed Dimple fondly remembered her association with Rajesh Khanna. When asked about the first thing that Rajesh said on seeing her, Dimple said, “ You will be surprised because even I was a bit taken aback when he said theek se chala karo, tumhe toh chalna bhi nahi aata.’ Akshay, on his part, read out a poetry written by his young son Aarav in memory of his grandfather. Recalling the last days of Rajesh, Akshay said, ‘The only person who my father-in-law could recognize was Aarav.” Seen paying tributes in glorious terms were yesteryear stars and Rajesh’s colleagues Jeetendra, Rakesh Roshan, Rishi Kapoor, Mithun Chakraborthy among others. Jeetendra had an interesting anecdote to share. “We have studied together, lived in the same locality and my association with him goes very long back. His name was Jatin Khanna and I was Ravi Kapoor, as there was another Ravindra Kapoor, the comedian and therefore I became Jitendra Kapoor and as I became JK he became RK”. What, however, made for a sweet picture was the wonderful bonding between Dimple Kapadia and Anju Mahendru who happened to be one of Kakaji’s ex girlfriends. United in grief, we say.