jQuery Grid Plugin - jqGrid

I have upgraded the jgrid from 3.7.2 to 4.4.4 from then onwards getRowData(rowId) is not working (ie not returning the row details)

my corresponding code snippet is

=======================================================

subGridRowExpanded: function(subgrid_id, row_id)

{........

var temprecord = new Array();

temprecord = jq("#dataGrid").getRowData(row_id);            

.......  }

=======================================================

In the above example

jqgrid 3.7.2 returns

temprecord as empty object

I have also tried this variant jq('#dataGrid').jqGrid('getRowData','row_id'); but even it does not work

Note: In my grid, there were few columns that are not visible(not shown) to user. In some forum, I remember I read that getRowData has a bug, when using in grid where some columns are not visible (display:none) to the user.

Is this true ? can anyone let me know how to getRowData using jgrid 4.4.4 version when grid contains some non visible columns