Once Refused When Raffi Ahmad Wanted to Buy It, Here are 8 Photos of Rano Karno Donating Si Doel's Oplet to a Museum

Kapanlagi.com - Rano Karno, also known as Si Doel, chose to donate his oplet engine to a museum, even though he had previously been offered billions of rupiah by Raffi Ahmad. The main star of Si Doel Anak Sekolah admitted that he was once tempted by the boss of Rans Entertainment to exchange his oplet for a Roll Royce.

"Raffi Ahmad wanted to buy it. At first, I thought he just wanted to create content, but it turned out he really wanted to give me Rp 2 billion for it. I didn't sell it at that time, I'm giving it away for free here," said Rano Karno in his speech at the inauguration of the Classic Motor Museum at the National Media Centre (NMC) SMK Kota Malang on Friday (1/4).

Rano recounted that about a year ago, Raffi and his wife, Nagita Slavina, came to his house for content creation purposes. It was then that they became interested in Si Doel's oplet and intended to exchange it for their vehicle.

"I thought it was just for content. I didn't know they were serious. 'Brother, let's exchange it for a Roll Royce'. The Roll Royce was worth almost Rp4 billion. I said, 'Are you serious?' It's true, brother, this is my livelihood! 'Brother, if we're shooting, you can borrow it from me'. Yeah, right," said Doel, imitating Raffi.

1. Original Machine

Rano Karno donates Si Doel's oplet (credit: Kapanlagi.com/Darmadi Sasongko)

Rano, who is now a member of the Indonesian Parliament, donated the oplet machine he bought in 1963. The machine is the original one used for filming Si Doel.

"Maybe you don't believe that this is the original machine from the Si Doel oplet. So, the first machine for that oplet was this one, only 800 CC, and I happened to replace it with 1000 CC. That oplet has changed its machine 3 times. I raised it again to 1200 CC," he explained.

2. Witnessing It All

Rano Karno donates Si Doel's oplet (credit: Kapanlagi.com/Darmadi Sasongko)

Rano's story about the existence of the oplet in the Si Doel story is inseparable from his personal journey. He bought the oplet in 1953 for Rp 500,000 in a pitiful condition without wheels.

"Back then, I bought it as a chicken coop, meaning it had no wheels. But for the sake of the film, I intentionally didn't fix it up like this. Imagine if you saw it always breaking down, I made it like that intentionally, so that it looked old, and so on, because it was for the film. If it were now, I would have fixed it," he explained.

3. Rano Karno's Dream

Rano Karno donates Si Doel's oplet (credit: Kapanlagi.com/Darmadi Sasongko)

He bought the oplet as an obsession, a childhood dream of Rano Karno who saw the oplet as a classy transportation back then.

"Back then, I walked to school every day, my house was far from school, so the oplet was a dream, when could I ride an oplet to get to school. That's the philosophy, that's why I brought the oplet into the soap opera," he said.

4. There Since the Beginning

Rano Karno donates Si Doel's oplet (credit: Kapanlagi.com/Darmadi Sasongko)

Therefore, the oplet has always been a part of the television series and movie screens of Si Doel. However, when the Si Doel series was first produced in 1992, the oplet was no longer a popular vehicle in Jakarta.

Its role had already been replaced by angkot. When it was produced, children in Jakarta had already started asking about the history of the vehicle.

5. The Origin of Oplet

Rano Karno donates Si Doel's oplet (credit: Kapanlagi.com/Darmadi Sasongko)

"Actually, its history is that it was a Chevrolet, but the Betawi people couldn't say that, so they called it oplet. At that time, there were 2 types of transportation, one of which was the Chevrolet that could carry 12 people. That's the short version of the story," he explained.

6. Holding the MURI Record

Rano Karno donates the Si Doel oplet (credit: Kapanlagi.com/Darmadi Sasongko)

The Classic Motorcycle Museum is located at SMK NMC Kota Malang. Its collection consists of 400 various classic motorcycles of different types. The motorcycles are grouped by brand and manufacturing period, starting from 1930.

The museum also holds the record as the first Classic Motorcycle Museum owned by an SMK from the Museum of Indonesian Records (MURI).

7. Museum Icon

Rano Karno donates the Si Doel oplet (credit: Kapanlagi.com/Darmadi Sasongko)

Meanwhile, the Si Doel oplet is positioned in front of the building as an icon of the museum. A sign provides an explanation of the history of the oplet with Rano Karno displayed on the banner.

8. Initially Hesitant

Rano Karno donates the Si Doel oplet (credit: Kapanlagi.com/Darmadi Sasongko)

Rano admitted to initially being hesitant between selling or donating the oplet to the museum's management who came to his house at the time. But eventually, he chose to donate it considering it could benefit others.

"Suddenly, I just believed because I saw that this could benefit future generations, so I said okay, you take this, keep it properly, take good care of it," he said.

Rano himself said he met and was invited by the museum's management about 2 years ago. But due to the pandemic, he was only able to visit Malang now.

(kpl/dar/lou)