New Delhi: Pakistani-American actor and activist Somy Ali has renewed her search for missing Hindi film actor Raj Kiran Mahtani. She said she has spent the past 16 years trying to trace him and will not stop until she finds out what happened to him.
Ali made the appeal in an Instagram post Sunday, 23 years after Raj Kiran disappeared in 2003. The actor’s whereabouts remain unknown despite repeated public appeals and reported investigations over the years.
“I made a promise to Chintu ji during a shoot and before he left us that I will never stop my search for Raj Kiran. This is my 16th year,” Ali wrote, referring to the late Rishi Kapoor, who starred alongside Raj Kiran in the 1980 film Karz.
Ali urged anyone with credible information about the actor’s whereabouts to contact her. She said she was willing to offer a financial reward for verified information that could help locate him.
“I will continue till I find Raj Kiran and have closure,” she added.
Who is Raj Kiran?
Raj Kiran was a familiar face in Hindi cinema through the late 1970s and 1980s, appearing in films including Karz, Arth, Baseraa, Raaj Tilak and Ek Naya Rishta. Ali later worked with him in the 1997 film Agnichakra, one of his last on-screen appearances.
The actor was last seen by his family in 2003. Since then, several unverified reports have claimed he was living in the United States, including one that he was receiving treatment at a mental health facility in Atlanta. In 2011, however, his daughter Rishika Mahtani denied those reports, saying, “My dad is still missing. He is not in Atlanta.” She said the family had approached the New York Police and hired private investigators but had been unable to trace him.
No confirmed public sighting or communication from Raj Kiran has emerged since his disappearance in 2003.