Director wanted to get me ostracized from school due to leprosy: Dimple Kapadia

Bollywood veteran Dimple Kapadia recounted her traumatic ordeal with leprosy and revealed that once a ‘famous director’, who also happened to be a ‘close friend’, wanted to get her ostracized from school due to the illness.

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Speaking at an event in Jaipur, India, seasoned actor Dimple Kapadia revealed that she had suffered from leprosy, and due to the stigma around the disease, a close friend, supposedly a ‘famous director’ now, wanted to get her ostracized from the school when she was 12.

Kapadia shared that it was the first time she heard the word ‘ostracized’ and asked someone to explain the meaning, but the incident and the person left a significant impact on her.

However, the illness eventually worked in her favour and led her to get her breakthrough movie role in Raj Kapoor’s ‘Bobby’, at the young age of 14.

Her father, Chunnibhai Kapadia, who was well-connected in the film industry, had met Kapoor and revealed his daughter’s medical condition to him. “He was told there is this beautiful girl, and she is suffering from leprosy. Out of this kind of a setback, there was a lot to gain, and that’s how I got Bobby,” recalled the veteran.

Also Read: Dimple Kapadia slaps Ranbir Kapoor 15-20 times

Though she was initially told that she looked much older than the film’s hero Rishi Kapoor, Kapadia was called again for another audition, which went well and she got the role.

Notably, Raj Kapoor’s coming-of-the-age musical ‘Bobby’, starring his son Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia in their debut roles, emerged as a blockbuster. The title was also the highest-grossing film of the year, as well as the second-highest-grossing film of the decade.