It is well known that despite being married and the father of five children, filmmaker-actor Raj Kapoor had a few affairs. In fact, a few years ago, his son, Rishi Kapoor, shared in his autobiography that at one point, his mother, Krishna Raj Kapoor, put her foot down when Raj was having an affair with actor Vyjayanthimala, who was his co-star in Sangam. Krishna moved out of their home and moved into a hotel. She refused to come back until Raj ended his relationship with her. However, years later, Vyjayanthimala denied it plainly, and claimed that Raj manufactured such gossip to promote his films. While the rumours of Raj and Vyjayanthimala’s affair were at their peak, she found herself in another scandal – and this time too, the rumour mill suggested that she was having an affair with a married man, who was a father to three kids.The man in question was Dr Chamanlal Bali, Raj Kapoor’s close friend and family physician.The rumour mill of the 1960s did not spare women. While Vyjayanthimala, known for films like Naya Daur, Devdas, Madhumati, Gunga Jumna, among many others, has herself admitted that Dr Bali was married when they fell in love with each other, the tabloids were quite brutal when it came to her relationships. She first met Dr Bali in 1961 as a patient and in the next couple of years, their relationship was out in the open. Her grandmother called her a home-wrecker but she was convinced that his marriage was already over when they fell in love.ALSO READ | Raj Kapoor followed Nargis to Berlin after break up, offered her money ‘after exploiting’ herRaj Kapoor questioned Vyjayanthimala about her relationship with Dr BaliIn her memoir, Bonding, Vyjayanthimala recalled that Dr Bali was with the team of Sangam when they were filming in Switzerland, Paris and London and was a “close friend” of Raj Kapoor. Their bonding with each other was starting to become the subject of a lot of gossip, so when she attended the screening of Sangam at RK Studio in 1964, Raj asked her, “Is something going on with my friend? What is it?” She was “upset” with Raj’s questions and refused to answer him. Raj Kapoor and Vyjayanthimala in Sangam.‘Even in Mahabharata and Ramayana, such things have happened’By then, the tabloids started painting her as the vamp who was breaking another home after Raj Kapoor’s. She knew of his marriage and children, but none of that mattered. “When you fall in love with a person, you just don’t think of anything else, like ‘What’ll happen because he’s married, because he has children? How can I do this?’ These things don’t strike you. Nor is it an unusual thing to happen. Even in Mahabharata and Ramayana, such things have happened – a girl falling in love with a married man. It has also happened on the screen. Now, it was a real-life drama that both of us had to face. But it wasn’t love at first sight. We got to know and understand each other gradually. Nothing mattered to me except that whenever I was with him, I was very happy.”Dr Bali was the first man who took her out on a date, and this was also her first act of defiance against her family, as they were strictly against the match. Her grandmother, who had been her chaperone almost all her life, now moved back to Chennai (then Madras) as she did not approve of this match. “You’re a married man with three children. You’ve no sense. Never come to this house again,” her grandmother told Dr Bali, but Vyjayanthimala put a stop to this “humiliation”.Story continues below this adALSO READ | Decades before cancel culture, Madhubala survived an orchestrated smear campaign with a loaded gun and armed guards Vyjayanthimala felt “disgraced” by the media. (Photo: Express Archives)‘I wasn’t a home-breaker’Vyjayanthimala felt she was being “disgraced” by the media and her grandmother’s dismissal of the relationship was adding fuel to the fire. “Not that I was doing anything wrong or interfering in his married life. No, I wasn’t doing anything of the sort,” she said.The couple got engaged at a simple ceremony at her home while he was still married. Dr Bali had convinced her that she was not “instrumental in breaking up his marriage” and that he was already in an “unhappy alliance.” He claimed that his marriage had been on the rocks for a while and he had already “drifted away.” “Grandma accused me that I was wrecking a home, but I wasn’t snatching him from anybody. I wasn’t a home-breaker,” she believed.Dr Bali told Vyjayanthimala that there was a “vacuum in my heart” or else why would he look for companionship outside of his marriage. “Obviously, if you’re compatible and happy with your spouse, no attraction would be distracting enough,” she explained.Story continues below this ad Vyjayanthimala claimed that Dr Bali’s marriage was already over when they fell in love. (Photo: Express Archives)Rumours about Dr Bali getting her hooked on drugsAt the time, it was also rumored that Dr Bali had “hooked me on drugs and I was not in my senses,” which was completely untrue, she wrote in her book. Rumours about him trying to steal Vyjayanthimala’s fortune had also started doing the rounds, but she paid no heed to them.Things got worse when she started getting threat calls. “You better be careful. We’ll see to it that he’s bumped off,” she was told over the phone. Dr Bali too was getting similar calls. Threatening letters and stalkers became a part of her life as she was constantly living under a microscope.After seven long years, since their first meeting, his divorce finally came through and they got married in 1968. She and her husband had mutually decided that she would quit films after marriage, and so she did.Vyjayanthimala quit films after marriage, refused Deewaar“I was part of the film industry, but I never thought it was part of me, though it gave me a lot of fame and wealth. So I had no regrets quitting the industry. There was no question of Doctor saab insisting on my doing so or imposing his will. When I was in films, I was not married. And when I got married, I stopped working in films. It was as simple as that,” she said and added that being a part of films would have prevented her from “fulfilling my familial duties.”Story continues below this adEven after they got married, she got some lucrative offers. Javed Akhtar, of the Salim-Javed duo, and director Yash Chopra were very keen that Vyjayanthimala play Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor’s mother in Deewaar. They approached her via her husband and she believed that the only way to get out of this was to quote a really high price, and so she did. The role was ultimately played by Nirupa Roy. She was also offered a role opposite Dilip Kumar in Manoj Kumar’s Kranti, but she refused to do that as well.Vyjayanthimala continued with her dancing career and credited her husband for being supportive through it all. They eventually moved to Chennai, with their son Suchindra, as Dr Bali left his practice and started a seafood export business, which, as per her, was quite successful. Dr Bali passed away in 1986, and Vyjayanthimala never married again. She continued with her dancing career, and her son, Suchindra, after completing his education, did a few films in the 2000s.