Rekha with her soulful eyes and mesmerising smile will always be the enigmatic original Diva of Indian cinema. Despite not having done a movie in several years Rekha's name evokes an image of an enchantress and a consummate actress. As she celebrates her 64 birthday today, we have put together some rare photographs and lesser known facts about the near-reclusive Rekha.
Rekha at 64: Rare photos and lesser known facts about the Diva
Rekha with her soulful eyes and mesmerising smile will always be the enigmatic original Diva of Indian cinema. Despite not having done a movie in several years Rekha's name evokes an image of an enchantress and a consummate actress. As she celebrates her 64 birthday today, we have put together some rarre photographs and lesser known facts about the near-reclusive Rekha.
Any fan of Rekha knows that she was born Bhanurekha Ganesan, the illegitimate child of South Indian actor Gemini Gamesan and Telugu actress Pushpavalli. But did you know she has one sister, five half-sisters and a half-brother; all from the same father, Gemini Ganesan. Even though Rekha and her cousins have different mothers, the actor is very attached to them.
Rekha was not considered as a top heroine for quite some time. Her dark skin, plump figure and the loud clothing (worn in her films made her contemporaries scornful of her). It was not until Rekha starred with Amitabh Bachchan in Do Anjaane (1976) and played the role of a rape victim in Ghar (1978) that people started to take her seriously as an actor.
Since Rekha was a South Indian, when she first landed in Mumbai, she did not speak Hindi and struggled to communicate with co-workers. She constantly missed her mother, who was critically ill at the time. Talking about this phase Rekha has said, “Bombay was like a jungle, and I had walked in unarmed.
It was one of the most frightening phases of my life... I was totally ignorant of the ways of this new world. Guys did try and take advantage of my vulnerability. I did feel, “What am I doing? I should be in school, having an ice-cream, fun with my friends, why am I even forced to work, deprived of normal things that a child should be doing at my age?"
Every single day I cried, because I had to eat what I didn't like, wear crazy clothes with sequins and stuff poking into my body. Costume, jewelry would give me an absolute terrible allergy. Hair spray wouldn't go off for days even despite all my washing. I was pushed, literally dragged from one studio to another. A terrible thing to do to a 13-year-old child."
There was a point in Rekha's early life when she even wanted to be a nun. That inclination came after she studied in a convent school with Irish nuns.
Can you imagine the gorgeous actress was once upon a time forced to work in B and C grade Telugu films, only because of her poor financial conditions?
She also happens to be the first ever actress in Hindi film industry who got herself enrolled in a gym at Hotel Ramee International and she started with swimming and basic exercises.
Here are some things about things about Rekha that might surprise you:
The actress always dreamt of travelling the world and that's why she wanted to become an airhostess, but unfortunately she was rejected due to her young age.
Rekha was obsessed with make-up, so much so that during her young days, she used to be make friends with airhostesses, who would bring her best of make-up brands from abroad....
Here is a young Rekha crowning Juhi Chawla as Miss India.
The fact that Rekha has slowly become a reclusive and shut herself from most of the outside world is a well-known fact. But did you know that no one has access to her bedroom: Rekha has basically barred the whole world from entering her house. Even the few who do are limited to being entertained in her living room.
The only person who has access to all parts of her house is her secretary Farzana, who’s been a constant companion for more than three decades now.
Rekha spends most of her time tending to her pets: Rekha always had little dogs as pets that she loved so dearly. Who can forget her dog Pisti? It was as famous as its mistress. She spends hours grooming her pets, which these days also includes a cat.
Her ‘me’ time: Rekha spends at least five hours a day attending to herself. It can be yoga, exercising or indulging in some home-made beauty therapy.
Tending to her plants: She spends at least two hours working in the small kitchen garden that she has prepared.
Meditation or is it Tai Chi? Rekha practices some kind of meditation. Some say it is Tai Chi, while others say that she is into holistic healing practices. Whatever it is, nobody is sure about this one.
Writing an autobiography: Her friends say that the news of Rekha writing her autobiography is true. She has been writing the book for several years now and is constantly editing her drafts. There are definitely some things that she doesn’t want to talk about. We hear that she’s dictating the book to Farzana.
Listening to music: Rekha spends her evenings listening to some music, surfing the net and sometimes watching TV. But that’s not an everyday affair. She loves Indian classical songs.
Brooding all alone: That is something that most friends actually admit. Rekha can sit by the window and stare at the sun for hours.
There were rumours around the time Ghar released that Vinod Mehra and Rekha had secretly married. According to reports from tabloids at the time - it was rumoured that on returning with husband actor Vinod Mehra to his house, Mehra's mother was angry with Vinod for having married Rekha. When Rekha went to touch her mother-in-law's feet, she, reportedly, pushed her away. She kept insulting and abusing Rekha and even, went as far as to assault the poor woman with her sandals. It took Vinod to settle issues between his mother and Rekha.
Another interesting report was during the time Rekha attended Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh's wedding on January 22, 1980, wearing sindoor and a mangalsutra! The marriage took place at RK Studios and was attended by the who's who of the film industry including Amitabh Bachchan along with his wife Jaya and parents. According to those present at the marriage that evening, Rekha made a 'sensational entry', wearing a spectacular white sari, with a red bindi on her forehead, and, well, red sindoor on her hair.
Another interesting report was during the time Rekha attended Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh's wedding on January 22, 1980, wearing sindoor and a mangalsutra! The marriage took place at RK Studios and was attended by the who's who of the film industry including Amitabh Bachchan along with his wife Jaya and parents. According to those present at the marriage that evening, Rekha made a 'sensational entry', wearing a spectacular white sari, with a red bindi on her forehead, and, well, red sindoor on her hair.
According to a Cine Blitz report on the events of that night, Rekha walked up to the centre of RK Studios' garden and stood there. But her eyes kept wandering towards Amitabh Bachchan who was speaking to director Manmohan Desai. Soon, Rekha walked up to Amitabh and began talking. They were seen conversing formally, but according to a report in Stardust magazine, "Jaya tried to keep a stoic front for a long time, but eventually she had to bend her head and let the tears roll down."
Besides the infamous alleged love affair with Amitabh Bachchan, the heroine was also linked with Sanjay Dutt who is 5 years younger to her. And if rumours are to be believed, Rekha once said that she became friends with Sanjay Dutt only to make Mr. Bachchan jealous. However, Dutt has gone on record to deny the rumours adding that Rekha was only helping him by giving him advice on how to sort out his complicated life.
It has also been said that Rekha was the reason for differences between actor Kamal Hassan and his wife Vani Ganapati.
Within a month of knowing businessman Mukesh Agarwal, Rekha married him and settled down. However, Rekha did not known at the time of courtship or marriage that Agarwal suffered from chronic depression, which apparently, ran in his family. Agarwal was also, reportedly, involved with his psychiatrist 'Akash Bajaj'.
Rekha simply could not handle the pressure of living the constantly troubled, suspicious, jealous and erratic Mukesh Agarwal and distanced herself from the man. Mukesh committed suicide, a mere seven months after his marriage to Rekha, and the press, the film fraternity and the nation's people began blaming and slandering Rekha for her husband's death. This period was one of the toughest times of Rekha's life. But like always, she rose above it and reinvented herself anew.
But all these topics were touched upon by author Mohan Deep in his book Eurekha. As soon as the book hit the stands, Rekha strongly opposed to whatever was written in the book. She even visited book-stores personally asking them not to stock the book.
But what was surprising was that she never really challenged the authenticity of the book on a public forum or otherwise. So, while the contents of the book can be debated upon, most of the incidents mentioned in the book did take place in her life and have been engraved on the pages of old film magazines.
In Her 30s Rekha had imagined her life turning out to be something else... she dreamed of kids and said that it did not affect her that Amitabh Bachchan denied their affair in public... here are excerpts from that interview..
This was one of Rekha's first ads.
And here is part 2 of the explosive and honest interview that Rekha gave in 1984
Recently, Yasser Usman published a new biography called Rekha: The Untold Story, published by Juggernaut, the writer chronicles her life and days and some of the excerpts from the book reveal details that are, well, have to be read to be believed.
Forced Smooch on a 15-year-old Rekha
While shooting her first film Anjana Safar, in Mumbai's Mehboob Studio, a 15-year-old Rekha had to endure, what would today be called as 'molestation', in the hands of the film's director Raja Nawathe and its star Biswajeet Chatterjee. Right before the shoot, Raja and Biswajeet had it all planned, down to the very last detail. The scene that was to be shot was a romantic scene. According to an excerpt, the moment Raja said 'action', Biswajeet grabbed Rekha and pressed his lips on her mouth. Anything about the kiss had not been mentioned to Rekha. While the camera kept rolling and the entire crew kept whistling and cheering, the director did yell 'cut' for five minutes, as Biswajeet kept kissing an unsuspecting Rekha for full five minutes. Rekha had tightly closed her eyes but they were full of tears.
Her performances, whether it is Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Ghar (for the record, the film is her personal favourite and she described it as her major breakthrough in “serious acting”), Umrao Jaan or Ijaazat, reflect the pain, melancholy and the lived experiences (of rejections and heartbreaks) of a troubled life.
“Tum namkeen ho, aur namkeen cheezon ka swaad hamesha zyada yaad rehta hai,” Meena Kumari is once believed to have told Rekha. That statement bears witness to Rekha’s enduring fame and longevity.
Much like Amitabh, Rekha is the only star of her generation who has travelled well over the years and aged gracefully. The key difference between Rekha and her contemporaries is that while others wear their age on their sleeves Rekha looks practically ageless. Many see her as an evergreen beauty, nonpareil and in a league of her own. Among the younger lot, she commands a ‘touch the feet’ kind of reverence.
When asked about her transformation from the 'ugly duckling’ to the reigning queen, she immediately responded by giving a very important advice to the young girls. “Appearance? Why only appearance? They can achieve just anything they want. If you want to be complete beautiful woman, the beauty has to be both ways, inside and out”.
She also compared being fat to not appealing, which was perhaps, the outcome of the rejections she has had to face when she entered. “To be a complete beautiful woman, you’ve to be slim fit. Definitely not fat. Fat is ugly”.
The actress also credited her hard work and will power for the glamorous transformation.
Muzaffar was Rekha’s director in Umrao Jaan, perhaps the role Rekha will be best remembered for by generations to come. While making the film, Muzaffar Ali got a close look into Rekha’s life. He described her as ‘a very sensitive woman’. According to him, ‘She became a walking corpse. The fault is entirely Amitabh’s. He used to come and sit on our sets during the Delhi shooting of Umrao Jaan. That’s a fact. Whenever referring to Amitabh, she always spoke using inko, inhone, like women do who consider themselves married. I think she considered herself married.’
Unlike many of Rekha and Amitabh’s colleagues in the film industry, Muzaffar Ali was not cagey. He was direct and unequivocal: ‘She is and she was in love with him. He should have definitely given her an identity. Amitabh should have married her.’
In her 2004 interview with Simi Garewal, Rekha spoke about Amitabh Bachchan at length, admitting that she fell in love with him but insisting there was no affair.
"He was something I'd never seen before. I've never met anyone like him," Rekha said on Rendezvous, "How can so many good qualities be bestowed on one person? I'm not a fool, I'm intelligent or so I'd like to believe. When I see a good thing, I can recognize it."
Asked if she fell in love with Big B while making the 10 films they share, she said, "Absolutely. Duh, that's a dumb question. I have yet to come across a single man, woman, child who can help but fall completely, passionately, insanely, desperately, hopelessly in love with him. So why should I be singled out? What do I deny? I'm not in love with him? Of course I am. Duniya bhar ka love aap le lijiyega and add some more - I feel that for that person. Bottomline."
Amitabh Bachchan had been married for some years to Jaya Bhaduri when he and Rekha signed their first film together, 1976's Do Anjaane. It didn't matter that he was taken. "The fact that he was a married man doesn't make any kind of a difference. A rose is a rose is a rose. A human being is interesting, period. I want to have the honour of being associated with this person so what is stopping me? I'm not here to 'break' his home so to speak. I'm here to be one of the lesser mortals who can just have a whiff of him and feel happy," Rekha, now 63, said on Rendezvous.
She also claimed that he had "no clue" how she felt and that much ado was made about nothing. The reported affair didn't happen. "You want to know the truth? This is headline, OK? There was never a personal connection with him, that's the truth. Never ever. There was no truth to the controversies and speculation" she told Simi Garewal.
Nor was there a rift with Mrs Bachchan, whom she calls Didibhai (the Bengali word for elder sister), Rekha claimed then. "Not at all. Didibhai is much more mature, much more together. I've yet to come across a woman who is so together. She's got so much dignity, so much class. She's got a lot of strength. I admire that woman. We had an association before the so-called rumours and the media messed up the whole image. We were living in the same building and we had a relationship. She was my Didibhai, she still is - no matter what happens nobody can take that away. Thank God she realizes that too. Whenever we meet she's very sweet - she's not just civil, she's just herself," she said.
Since Silsila, Rekha and Amitabh Bachchan have met only at public award shows. "I see him lots at functions. He's a very sweet human being and his memory is very sharp. That one Namaste says it all," she said in the interview more than 10 years ago.
In a sensational interview published in Stardust in 1978 – ‘Rekha: Girl without a Conscience?’ – Rekha claimed, ‘Once I was looking at the whole [Bachchan] family through the projection room when they came to see the trial show of Muqaddar Ka Sikandar. Jaya was sitting in the front row and he and his parents were in the row behind her. They couldn’t see her as clearly as I could. And during our love scenes, I could see tears pouring down her face.’ It is believed that Jaya put a ban on Amitabh working with Rekha after Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, and word got around fast that Amitabh had been given an ultimatum by his wife. Discussing this, Rekha said, ‘A week later [after the trial show of Muqaddar Ka Sikandar], everybody in the industry was telling me that he has made it clear to his producers that he was not going to work with me. Everybody else informed me about it but he didn’t say a word on the subject. When I tried to question him about it, he said, “I am not going to say a word. Don’t ask me about it”.’
In the same interview, Rekha revealed another shocking detail: she claimed that Amitabh had gifted her two rings that she always wore. When Amitabh refused to work with her, she returned the rings and decided to part ways with him. In her own words, ‘Naturally I was upset and we broke off after that. I was working in Khoobsurat at that time and I put my heart and soul into my role. You will notice that in the last half of the film I am not wearing my two rings. They have been given to me by him and I never remove them even when I am sleeping. But during those days when we had parted, I sent them back to him.’
With Mukesh Aggarwal in good times.
“Rekha is a rare gem,” says director Mahesh Bhatt. “If only I had a suitable script for her, I would cast her without any delay”. Yash Chopra, another leading producer director, had said sighs, “Such talent, Rekha should go on acting as long as she can.”
This controversial photoshoot with Kajol for the cover of the Stardust magazine had created a stir.
Photographed here with former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, Rekha has been accused of not taking her duties as a parliamentarian seriously.
Both Tendulkar and Rekha have very poor attendance in the Rajya Sabha among the 12 nominated members, according to an analysis by Factly.in, a data journalism portal.
While Tendulkar has attended 23 of the 348 days since his nomination in 2012, Rekha has attended 18. Further, Rekha has not attended more than a single day in any session since her nomination in 2012.
While Rekha attended the least number of days compared to those who were nominated along with her, the expenditure incurred on her is the highest till date: Rs 65 lakh as salary and expenses.
The 63-year-old actress still appreciates good cinema and is not afraid to tell the actors what she thinks of them. She wrote a letter to Aamir Khan after watching Dangal hat moved him to tears.
Without much make-up Rekha still looks beautiful!
Sridevi and Rekha areclose friends, here at an award function from the 80s.
Vidya Balan who has been called the new Rekha is very fond of Rekha. The actress loves to dress in traditonal sarees like the beautiful Rekha. The fact that both actresses hail from South, that has created a strong bond between them.
this photogrpah was taken at the screening on Vidy'a recent movie 'Begum Jaan' where Rekha caught up with Vidya and Alia Bhatt.
Ac ouple of years ago, a photo of Amitabh and Rekha went viral on the internet. The photograph shows Big B sitting in an aircraft posing with the pilot. In a seat behind him Rekha is visible. Real or morphed? Well, the photograph is real. A source close to Big B reveals, “Amitji was not aware of the other passengers on board. There were many Bollywood personalities travelling to Chennai for a celebration of 100 years of cinema. It is a sheer coincidence that they ended up on the same flight. If someone is trying to suggest a rendezvous here, it is ridiculous. Because if that were the case, they would ensure they weren’t on the same flight.” It may be recalled that the unpredictable diva had suddenly turned up at a suburban hotel during Big B’s 60th birthday bash, uninvited. She had stormed into the lobby and quickly ducked out without actually entering the venue. Hence Rekha’s presence on the same flight may or may not be a coincidence. But the fact is, they never came face-to-face before during or after the flight to Chennai.
This photo was taken last week at a party hosted by Manish Malhotra. Seen here are Rani Mukherjee, Vidya Balan, Tina Ambani and Sridevi along with Manish Malhotra and Rekha.
At the success party of Dangal with Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao and rest of the cast.
Veteran actor Rishi Kapoor, who has played romantic hero in almost 92 films, has a bit of bitterness in his heart for not making a successful film with his co-star Rekha. They had worked together in ‘Deedar-E-Yaar (1982)’, ‘Ram Tere Kitne Naam (1985)’, ‘Sheshnaag (1990)’, ‘Amiri Garibi (1990)’ and ‘Azaad Desh Ke Gulam (1990)’. However, the 70’s Superstar promises and wishes, if given a chance, to score big ones in character roles with both the actress before retiring.
Another one. Though not cast romantically often,I could never score a BO Hit with her too. Rekha was magic otherwise. pic.twitter.com/KRTmrgSWoR
— Rishi Kapoor (@chintskap) April 19, 2015
Promise.Before retiring will do the needful,if given a chance, score big ones in characters with both of them!Record sahi karna hai with all
— Rishi Kapoor (@chintskap) April 19, 2015
Ranbir with Rekha at an awards function. Ranbir also said in an interview that he would love to be mysterious. “I would like to die a mystery. The media can go ahead and write anything. Personally, I believe in maintaining a certain level of respect for myself and those around me. So, I try to do that,” said Ranbir.
Having fun and twirling her braid at a recent award function.
With Ranveer Singh at a recent award function.
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