Ashirwad to turn into museum?

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Akshay Kumar with mother-in-law Dimple Kapadia and Rajesh Khanna

The late Rajesh Khanna’s collection of antiques, carved artifacts and old bottles of wine is as impressive as his collection of awards and prizes. Now, after his death there is the likelihood that his family may turn his house into a museum.

Two years back when India’s first superstar had got his bungalow, Ashirwad, renovated he had met with this correspondent for an interview and had also shown her around his newly done up home. The Asian Age gives you a feel of what a Rajesh Khanna museum would look like.
“I will show you some antique pieces which you may have never seen before. But no camera allowed… switch off you cellphone and keep it here,” Rajesh Khanna said, pointing to a table in the interview room. After I had left the camera and the cellphone on the table, he led me to a room on the right and showed off his bar room. “Look,” he said, “these are the bottles with the oldest wines. Aren’t the bottles so pretty in shape?” Then he pointed to a big ashtray and said, “Have you ever seen this kind of a huge, lovely and meticulous ashtray?” There was a Statue of Liberty that looked very different indeed and there was stuff from all over the world, especially things that were meticulously and ornately carved.
Rajesh Khanna also has a huge collection of photographs. He showed me a portrait of Indira Gandhi and Sonia, who was very young then, among many others. He was also very proud of his gramophone. “Isn’t this something out of the blue,” he had said when he showed me the gramophone.
Would you like to set up a museum, I had asked the actor back then. “That’s a secret I have shared with my daughters,” he had said, adding, “this is your laxman rekha, abb aur nahi dikhlaunga. Chaliye bahar (This is as far as you go. I won’t show you anything else. Let’s head outside.)”
Kaka was surely not only an emotional person but he also respected everyone who interacted with him. He personally walked me to the gate of his bungalow and showed me out.