Not Mandakini but Khushbu Sundar was supposed to play the leading lady in Raj Kapoor’s 1985 film Ram Teri Ganga Maili.
Mandakini became a huge sensation with her role of Ganga in Raj Kapoor’s 1985 romantic drama Ram Teri Ganga Maili in which she was paired opposite Rajiv Kapoor. However, you would be surprised to know that the actress wasn’t the first choice for this film.
In a recent interview with Vickey Lalwani on his YouTube channel, actress-turned-politician Khushbu Sundar revealed that Raj Kapoor was supposed to launch her with this movie. She even did a photoshoot for the same. However, the late filmmaker eventually replaced her with Mandakini as he felt that she was too young to play such a mature role.
Khushbu shared, “Raj Kapoor wanted to launch me in Ram Teri Ganga Maili. We also did a photo shoot for the same. After looking at those photos, Raj Kapoor had said, ‘She is my Ganga.’ The plan was to finish the Gangotri schedule first, but it was snowing at the time, so they decided to shoot in Kolkata first, where they would show the brothel scene. In this segment of the film, the character is already a mother to a baby.”
She continued, “But I was not even fully 14 years old at the time, so Raj ji said, ‘She is herself a kid, and a baby in her hand won’t look good.’ He couldn’t push the film either, and because of this, I couldn’t star in the film.”
The actress said that while she lost Ram Teri Ganga Maili to Mandakini, she did struck a friendship with the film’s hero Rajiv Kapoor and was aware of his health issues before his passing away in 2021.
Khushbu revealed, “He (Rajiv) did have a heart issue, but because of his addiction to alcohol, we knew that it could create a huge problem. We were not successful in making him quit this habit.”
“He was keeping extremely low. He had a major issue with his knee, so he underwent a couple of surgeries. But that didn’t help him at all. We were definitely aware that Chimpu (Rajiv) was unwell. I was in Bombay when Chimpu died. I was informed about his death by Boney Kapoor. He called me and said, ‘Chimpu is no more’. It came as a rude shock to me,” the Meri Jung actress told the host.
She went on to add that she still has Rajiv Kapoor’s number and regrets not staying in touch with his family.
Coming back to Ram Teri Ganga Maili, the film was a huge blockbuster upon its release and even generated controversy over Mandakini’s bold scenes in it.
