Australia’s Indian community will be celebrating in style this year, with “Bolly, Jolly Christmas” and New Year’s Eve parties taking place across the country in what promises to be the most colourful events of the holiday season.
We’re also looking forward to seeing Indian cricket fans – a force to be reckoned with if ever there was one – at the summer’s cricket matches, beginning on Boxing Day at the MCG. Again, those of us sadly lacking in Indian heritage will be feeling just a tad jealous!
Never one to shy away from a tangential link opportunity, these fabulous events have sent this writer down the proverbial rabbit warren, researching a glamorous Bollywood star renowned for openly sharing her experience of leprosy.
Dimple Kapadia is the stuff of Bollywood dreams. The daughter of a successful businessman, she grew up surrounded by the rich and powerful. Physically stunning, it seemed that the world was Dimple’s oyster.
Yet, at twelve years old, the young girl contracted leprosy and found herself facing the same kind of ignorance and prejudice that people affected by leprosy have experienced since ancient times.
For Dimple, the source of the cruelty was a family friend who was also a famous director.
“I was suffering from leprosy at that time. I was about 12 years old. I had it in my elbow,” the star revealed in an interview with FICCI Flo Jaipur Chapter in 2018.
“So, this man turned around and said, ‘I’ll see that you get ostracised from school’. That was the first time I heard that word. I didn’t even know what that meant.”
Fortunately, the film executive’s prejudice was not shared by all. Dimple says that Bollywood director Raj Kapoor wanted to meet her because of her medical condition.
“Raj Kapoor wanted to meet this girl. He was told there is this beautiful girl, and she is suffering from leprosy,” she says. “Out of this kind of a setback, there was a lot to gain, and that’s how I got Bobby.”
Dimple explained that she had read in the newspaper that the director was looking for a girl to play the film’s title role of Bobby Braganza opposite his son Rishi Kapoor as Raj Nath. It was to be the first time the acclaimed director would direct his son as lead actor.
Dimple tested for the role but was rejected.
“He [Raj Kapoor] said, ‘You look much older than Chintu [Rishi Kapoor],” she says.
Yet, somehow – possibly after some intervention from Dimple’s father, “He called me back again, and it was all right from there on,” she said.
Bobby hit the screens in 1973 and soon became a super hit. A coming-of-age musical romance film, the film explored the theme of teenage romance and the clash between rich and poor. Along with the leading duo Dimple and Rishi, Bobby starred Aruna Irani, Farida Jalal and Prem Chopra.
“It was the most fabulous time of my life. Anything that I said or wanted, or desired just happened. It was magical. Absolutely magical,” Dimple recalled. Her career skyrocketed, making her one of Bollywood’s most revered icons.
And what about the leprosy Dimple had suffered? The actress is quoted as saying, “Miraculously, I healed, or else there would have been no Bobby, which served as a comprehensive textbook on acting.”
In 2018, when the actress’ leprosy experience was revealed, it was massive news in the Indian media. Article after article was written detailing the revelation, with the star praised for taking such a bold, stigma-destroying stance.
Sitting here in Australia in 2024, her disclosure can seem a little… tepid. What does she mean she had a “miraculous” recovery? Isn’t it more likely that her wealthy father was able to get her the best medical treatment, and it was cured, as we know leprosy can be?
And couldn’t she have said a little more to correct the rampant misinformation about the disease that stigmatises leprosy? Or to direct sufferers on where to get treatment?
Having recently learned about leprosy, though, I know that my response is just as rooted in a cultural context as Dimple’s.
Leprosy does not run rampant in my homeland, unlike Dimple. In her homeland last year, 107,851 new cases of leprosy were diagnosed – two-thirds of the world’s new cases. It’s safe to say that I don’t have skin in the game. Talking about leprosy doesn’t involve trauma for me. It may well do so for her Dimple.
I am also blessedly free of a cultural context that associates the disease with class, status or, worst of all, cleanliness. By and large, Australians believe that diseases don’t discriminate. Anyone can fall victim to one through no fault of their own.
For Dimple, the context is different. By speaking up, she risked her reputation and future opportunities. Despite the enlightened media’s affirmation of her courage, she likely paid a cost for speaking up even as tentatively as she did.
As a famous, talented, beautiful woman from a wealthy family, Dimple sharing her personal story of being affected by leprosy and experiencing discrimination is indeed the kind of powerful action that is needed to shift the dial towards eliminating leprosy’s spread in India.
So, this Christmas, when I see our Indian Australian friends celebrating their “Bolly, Jolly Christmas,” ushering in the New Year with colour, and bringing the MCG to life as cricket’s most passionate fans, I will think of Dimple —with respect and gratitude.
