Veteran actor-politician Raj Babbar is a year older. His contribution to Hindi cinema includes both antagonist and protagonist parts. I don’t know why a gentleman like Raj Babbar began his career playing a rapist in Insaaf Ka Tarazu. It was actually not his first film. Raj was first seen Kissa Kursi Ka in 1977, a film that was burnt and destroyed.
In a throwback interview, Babbar recalled his early struggle. “For three years after Kissa Kursi Ka, I had to sit at home. Nothing happened. My career too would have gone up in flames was it not for B R Chopra who came forward to offer me Insaaf Ka Tarazu. When he said it was the role of a rapist, I hesitated. The film proved godsent to my career. Later I did some of my most successful films with B R Chopra Saab including Nikaah and Aaj Ki Awaaz (my most successful film with Smita). If I had one godfather in the film industry, it was B R Chopra.”
Playing a suave rapist in Insaaf Ka Tarazu was not easy for Raj. In real life he says he can’t even raise his voice at a woman. In the film he had to command Zeenat Aman and Padmini Kolhapure to do the most unspeakable things. After the film released and became a hit, women’s organizations pulled up Raj for playing a role that exploited women.
Recalled Raj with a shudder, “In my long career as an actor I’ve realised there are two kinds of challenges, emotional and physical. I remember that in one of my earliest films Insaaf Ka Tarazu, I had to face both the forms of challenge simultaneously. It was a scene where I had to brutally rape Zeenat Aman’s character. I was a newcomer and she was a big star.I took my mentor BR Chopra Saab aside and told him to tone down the scene, since doing a graphic rape sequence with an actress of Zeenatji’s stature made me nervous. I didn’t want to mess up my career by being branded budtameez at such an early stage of my career. When Zeenatji heard of my nervousness, she immediately took charge. We not only shot the sequence as per the script but also rehearsed several times so that the scene looked real and not film.”
This was way back in the 1980s when the concept of women’s empowerment and feminism were just emerging in the media. The aggression regarding women’s rights was peaking, Raj had to take the full brunt of it.
Raj Babbar didn’t know how to handle the controversy. “I was new to such attention and to the film industry. Insaaf Ka Tarazu was my second film. And I played the rapist! Women’s organizations pounced on me condemning my presence in the film as being derogatory to women. You must remember this was way back in the 1980s when concept of women’ empowerment and feminism were just emerging in the media. The aggression regarding women’s rights was new and hotblooded and I had to take the full brunt of it.”
It took one brave and honourable judge to put an end to the attack on Insaaf Ka Tarazu.
Recalled Babbar, “The matter went to Justice Bhagwati who stood by the film. He was a friend of the film’s producer-director B R Chopra and Justice Bhagwati agreed to see Insaaf Ka Tarazu. I wonder what would’ve happened to our film if he had not agreed to see the film! When he saw the film he recommended it strongly as a statement against rape. He wrote a letter supporting the film. That’s why we were able to release our film.”
In 1983, Raj Babbar created the one and only scandal in his life by marrying Smita Patil. It was his second marriage, and it almost destroyed his first marriage.
Raj Babbar had explained to me, “I felt it was the right thing to do. I knew it would hurt my wife(theatre and film actress Nadira Babbar) immensely. But I had to stand by Smita. She was going to be the mother of my child.”
This says a lot about a man who owns up to his mistakes and does some serious damage control no matter what the cost.
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