Where is Yesteryear's Actor Raj Kiran
Dead or Alive or in a mental asylum?
Disappeared retired or forgotten actors
Name : Raj Kiran
Status : Disappeared
Nobody knows where is actor Raj Kiran nowadays. He has acted in over 100 films and was a popular actor of the 80s. He mostly played supporting roles. Arth, Karz, Ghar Ho To Aisa were some of the popular movies he acted in. He was often typecasted as a romantic hero. Later he was regularly casted opposite actress Shoma Anand as the evil elder brother who breaks a joint family.
His real name is Raj Kiran Mehtani and made his debut in 1975 with the movie “Kaagaz ki nao” opposite actress Sarika.
He suddenly disappeared from the industry and nobody knew where he is now. Even his family members aren’t aware about him. He was last seen in the Doordarshan serial Reporter(1994) & in the horror tv show Aahat(1998) and disappeared after, never to be seen again.
The rumour of his death surfaced online but were quashed by his daughter. His brother told actor Rishi Kapoor that the actor is in Atlanta.
His daughter later issued a public statement negating the reports of Raj being in Atlanta. The family was sure that the actor is alive but didn’t knew where exactly he was. Raj’s family has been trying to locate him for years. They even took help of New York police & detectives but still he wasn’t found.
The actor wasn’t doing well financially. The decline in film offers took a toll on his mental health. Lack of support from his family further pushed him into depression. Later he was admitted in a mental asylum in Mumbai. And nobody has seen him after since.
He was arrested for trespassing an ashram and spent 34 days in jail. After coming out on bail, he pleaded for work in an interview.
Around 2011, somebody informed actress Deepti Naval, his co-star and friend that Raj is driving a cab in New York. Later she came to know that Raj is in a mental asylum in Atlanta.
To know his whereabouts, Deepti Naval shared a heartfelt posts on her Facebook timeline appealing people to find the missing actor & requesting people to give any clue about the actor with the following caption “Looking for a friend from the film world his name is Raj Kiran — we have no news of him — last heard he was driving a cab in NY city if anyone has any clue, please tell…”
Actor Rishi Kapoor, his co-star from the movie Karz too was shocked to know about the actor’s disappearance. When Rishi Kapoor was in US he called Raj’s brother Gobind who refused to divulge any details about the actor but told Rishi Kapoor that he is in a sorry state and is in a mental asylum in Atlanta. The news that was denied by the actors wife and daughter.”
Rishi Kapoor on Raj’s sudden disappearance “I’ve been wondering where Raj had disappeared. The question was haunting me for a very long time. Then these rumours of Raj being no more began doing the rounds. I was really disturbed. How can a colleague with whom I shared a really good times, just vanish from the face of earth? I decided to look up Raj’s elder brother Govind Mahtani to find out about Raj. I was so relieved when Govind told me that Raj was alive. But he was confined to an institution in Atlanta due to health problems. … apparently, he looks after his own treatment by working within the institution. It’s a heart-rending situation for an actor who was so successful at one time”.”
This is the dark reality of the glamorous film world. At one moment you’re on top. The next moment you’re nowhere to be seen. For an actor in Bollywood, the struggle is never ending. No work and fading popularity can affect you emotionally. This is what happened with Raj and many others…
P.S I’m always curious to know about lost, retired or disappeared actors & actresses of the past era. Please let me know if you’ve the same curiosity. And tell me whether you like such posts and whom should I write about in the next post
