When Mumtaz recalled how Rajesh Khanna would say 'aye moti, chal aaja' before carrying her through snow in Roti

Rajesh Khanna was the first superstar of Bollywood. The actor delivered 15 consecutive hits in his career, a record that still stands unbroken. He worked in numerous movies such as Aradhana, Ittefaq, Do Raaste, Safar, Kati Patang, Sachaa Jhutha, Aan Milo Sajna, Choti Bahu, Anand and Haathi Mere Saathi.

While the actor had a great rapport with each of his leading ladies, his pairing with Mumtaz received the most love. The actor-duo starred in 10 films together, one of which was Roti. At the time of his death, Mumtaz revealed that the climax scene of the film, which required Rajesh to carry the actor on his shoulder and walk through the snow, took eight days to shoot.

Speaking with Mumbai Mirror, Mumtaz had said, "When we were shooting the climax of Manmohan Desai’s Roti, he was meant to carry me on his shoulders and run through snow. Each morning when we’d start shooting, he’d say, ‘Aye moti, chal aaja (aye fatty, come on).’ And I’d jump on to his shoulders. We did this for eight days. I stood tall at 5’7”, and wasn’t skinny, so by the end of it, he had a red patch on his left shoulder. We laughed through it all."

She had opened up about the scene in an interview with PTI as well. She had said, "It was hard work for him, carrying me through snow. I used to joke when we started shooting every day of that week that now you will have to carry 100 kg sack on your shoulders, and he would say that I was not that heavy. But I was never a slim girl."

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Rajesh Khanna, fondly known as Kaka, died on July 18, 2012. He was married to Dimple Kapadia and they have two daughters, Twinkle Khanna and Rinke Khanna. Although Rajesh and Dimple separated in 1984, they never legally separated.