Socialite Bina Ramani has had a roller coaster ride — from being a fashion designer, a restaurateur to being a witness in the Jessica Lal murder case — but the only regret she harbours is of not marrying legendary actor Shammi Kapoor, whom she claims to have had a tumultuous affair with.
“I wish I had married Shammi Kapoor then. I regret marrying my first husband, Andy Ramani and moving to San Francisco,” Ramani recently revealed in her autobiography.
Ramani has candidly written about her affair with Kapoor which “was doomed to die before it blossomed”, in her autobiography titled, Bird in a Banyan Tree — My Story.
“I was introduced to Shammi by Raj Kapoor’s wife, Krishna ji, 10 months after his wife died of sudden illness, leaving him in an inconsolable state with his two children.
While his film career as an actor was at its peak, he was very lonely in his personal life, and was becoming increasingly reckless in his behaviour,” Ramani said at her book launch recently. “Soon enough, Shammi was openly displaying his growing affection for me, and with Krishna ji’s help, he managed to find several occasions where we could either meet in private or ‘run into each other’ publicly,” she said.
However, their romance didn’t blossom into marriage, because of Raj Kapoor’s opposition to the match, claims Ramani. “My parents, too, weren’t comfortable as the thought of losing their daughter to a movie star with a terrible reputation for drinking and womanising was not welcoming. I had plans of eloping with Shammi, when my parents introduced me to Andy while Shammi was away on a tour,” she added.
{{/usCountry}}However, their romance didn’t blossom into marriage, because of Raj Kapoor’s opposition to the match, claims Ramani. “My parents, too, weren’t comfortable as the thought of losing their daughter to a movie star with a terrible reputation for drinking and womanising was not welcoming. I had plans of eloping with Shammi, when my parents introduced me to Andy while Shammi was away on a tour,” she added.
{{/usCountry}}