Sharmila Tagore birthday: When she came close to working with Raj Kapoor – Times of India

In her insanely illustrious career of 63 years Sharmila Tagore has worked with every important Indian director including Satyajit Ray, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Bimal Roy, Shakti Samanta, Manmohan Desai, OP Ralhan. She has co-starred with all the leading actors of the 1960s and 70s from Biswajeet and Sunil Dutt to Amitabh Bachchan and Rajesh Khanna.

There is only one major Hindi superstar Sharmila has not worked with, and that is Raj Kapoor. From the triumvirate of superstars in the 1950s, she got a chance to work with Dilip Kumar in Dastaan and Dev Anand in Yeh Gulistan Hamara.

With Raj Kapoor she came very close to doing a film. That was none other than the monumental Mera Naam Joker.

Not many knows this, but Raj Kapoor had spoken to Sharmila Tagore and had verbally got her to agree to feature in Chapter 2 of Mera Naam Joker. For the unversed, the film is divided into three chapters. The second chapter in set in the world of the circus. Sharmila Tagore was supposed to feature as a circus artiste whom Raju (Raj Kapoor) develops a soft corner for.

But then the script changed. The circus chapter of Mera Naam Joker was reworked into a Russian collaboration. Russian ballerina Kseniya Ryabinkina was signed to play the female lead.

Now of course, Sharmila’s son Saif Ali Khan is married to Raj Kapoor’s grand-daughter Kareena Kapoor.