Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, and Dev Anand once teased PM Jawaharlal Nehru with Lady Mountbatten, who was impressed by…

In the 1950s, Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, and Dev Anand were considered to be the three most important faces of the Hindi film industry. They were the biggest film stars of their time and shared a great bond. The trio was always joking around, and when they were in a mischievous mood, they did not hesitate to prank the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. Once, the trio teased Nehru about his closeness with Lady Edwina Mountbatten.

In the book titled Raj Kapoor: The One and Only Showman, Raj Kapoor’s daughter Ritu Nanda has mentioned this. Quoting Raj, Ritu Nanda wrote, “Once Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand and I were called to meet Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru at his Teen Murti residence.” Raj said that at that time, Nehru “had just recovered from a stroke and looked quiet and a little tired.” But as soon as he hugged the “Big Three”, his mood became good.

Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, and  Dev Anand were impressed by Jawaharlal Nehru’s stories of his experiences around the world. “We all opened up as if we had found a lost friend,” Raj Kapoor said, “and he too responded in the same way, with a childlike joy. Perhaps he wanted a brief respite from his tiring and politically charged life.” Now that the conversation was flowing like between old friends, the stars dared to ask him about his personal life.

Raj said, “We asked him, ‘I heard that wherever you went, women were attracted to you, Panditji!’ He immediately replied with a smile, ‘I am not as popular as you are!'” Then he asked the question that remained a rumour for years. “We asked, ‘Your killer smile stole Lady Mountbatten’s heart… is it true, Sir?’ He blushed, enjoyed the question and laughed, and said, ‘I love all these stories!'”

Since Nehru had answered the first question honestly, Dilip Kumar asked another question. Raj recalled, “‘But everyone says she admitted that she was in love with you!’ Dilip Kumar said, laughing. Nehru laughed again and said, ‘People made me believe those stories.'” Before India’s independence in 1947, there were many rumours of closeness between PM Nehru and Lady Mountbatten. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru died in 1964 at the age of 74.

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