Source: Youtube screengrabIt was often reported that the supposed affair, not surprisingly, caused much turmoil in the Bachchan household. In a sensational interview published inStardust 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.'
Source: Youtube screengrab Rekha claimed that she was deeply hurt by Amitabh's decision not to work with her but it was Jaya who ended up becoming the target of her tirades. She melodramatically emphasized that her pain was somehow far greater than Jaya's. At an award function some time ago, I'd recited a few lines. Everyone imagined they were meant for him. But actually, it was for her,' said Rekha. Rekha recited the lines in the interview: I looked at you, you turned your face away. Why? You feel you are badly off, but can't you see my position is worse? There is deep hurt in your gaze, but can't you see that the wounds in my heart are deeper than your look?'
Source: Youtube screengrab Rekha, bold and direct, dropped all veils of secrecy. Whether she was telling the truth is difficult to determine, but her statements often caused an uproar at that time. She was seen as launching a head-on assault on the clean image of the Bachchans. Calling herself the other woman' for the first time, Rekha said, People say the wife is always one-up because she has the man. I say the "other woman" is ten-up because the man wants her in spite of having a wife. It is not a question of what does Jaya have that I don't have. What does Jaya have that I have?'
Excerpted from Rekha The Untold Story, By Yasser Usman, Juggernaut Books.
The exact moment when film star Rekha became a villain in vermilion (and it wasn't in Silsila')
She walked into Rishi Kapoor's wedding with sindoor in her hair, spreading shock waves all around.
In a display of typically sexist hypocrisy, the film industry singled out Rekha and maligned her, not her partners, for her supposed relationships. After reports of affairs with Jeetendra, Dharmendra, Sunil Dutt and now Amitabh Bachchan, among others, Rekha was being projected as a woman who posed a threat' to all married men. Derogatory labels like man-eater', nymphomaniac' and sex kitten' were used casually and callously to refer to her.
At the peak of her career, Rekha was at the receiving end of scathing attacks by other leading actresses. The acclaimed actress of her era Nargis Dutt said about Rekha in 1976: She gives the impression to men that she is easily available. Rekha is looked on as a "witch" by some. Sometimes I think I understand her. I've worked with a lot of children with a lot of psychological problems in my time. She's lost. She needs a strong man.'
Dimple Kapadia is reported to have told Rekha to steer clear of Rajesh Khanna, saying stay away from my husband'.
The writer Khushwant Singh, however, known for his blunt wit, effortlessly attacked the double standards of the film industry: Rekha is probably the victim of the usual masculine habit of describing any woman who is stylish and uninhibited as a "nymphomaniac". Probably, it's also a kind of wishful thinking of the male. I admire people like Rekha and Protima Bedi. Only I wish they didn't indulge in it deliberately for publicity. Otherwise, the more scandalous Rekha's statements are, the more I like her.'
And scandal she did create with her next move.
22 January 1980. The occasion was Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh's wedding. The whole of R.K. Studio was grandly bedecked to celebrate Raj Kapoor's son's wedding. The biggest names of the industry were in attendance, including Amitabh Bachchan, his wife, Jaya, and his parents. Amitabh was talking to Manmohan Desai in a corner and Jaya was sitting with her mother-in-law, Teji Bachchan, when Rekha made a sensational entry. All eyes turned at once towards her. Dressed in a magnificent white sari, Rekha had a bright red bindi on her forehead. But what caught everyone's eye was the generous dabbing of sindoor in her hair. Th e cameras instantly pivoted away from Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh, and frenetically photographed Rekha's curious new look. The dull drone of everyone murmuring and whispering filled the evening air; everyone wanted to know: had Rekha married?
Cine Blitz summed up the mood of the evening in its report: Don't miss the sindoor in her hair, which only married ladies wear. It's not something even people in films wear as a fashion. What is she trying to prove - that she's hooked?' According to the report, after congratulating Rishi and Neetu, Rekha went and stood bang in the middle of R.K. Studio's garden. When had she ever shied away from attention, or controversy? But her eyes kept darting towards Amitabh every other second. That evening, Amitabh had injured his hand and was wearing a bandage on it. Gathering courage, Rekha took hold of her close friend Snehlata Pandey, the doctor who is credited for introducing Rekha to aerobics and better diets, and went over to where Amitabh was standing. They were seen chatting formally for a few minutes. According to a report in Stardust, 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.'
In a somewhat anticlimactic interview, Rekha later cleared the air: that evening, she had come to the reception straight from a shoot. The sindoor and mangalsutra she was wearing were part of her get-up for a film, which she had forgotten to remove.But according to a report published in Movie in June 1982, at a National Awards function, Rekha, who was being honoured with the award for best actress for Umrao Jaan (1981), was asked by then president of India Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, Why do you have sindoor in your maang?' The audience waited with bated breath. Rekha promptly replied into the mike, In the city I come from, it's fashionable to wear sindoor.'
Rekha and Amitabh Bachchan in Silsila'. Courtesy Yash Raj Films.But in an interview much later, Jaya Bachchan, in fact, completely refuted her husband's involvement in any affair: Let the whole world say what they want. He [Amitabh Bachchan] has made a commitment to me and he has to have the courage (to say he's in love with somebody else!), and if he is doing something behind my back, it's his problem. Not my problem. He has to live with it. And with his conscience!'
Without taking Rekha's name, Amitabh responded to the reported tensions in his marriage: A divorce will never happen in our case. I don't believe in divorce because my basic instincts are Indian. I made an absolutely first class choice when I took Jaya as my wife.' This is the closest that Amitabh ever came to even admitting that all was not well in the Bachchan household.
But Rekha kept fuelling the media fire. In an interview to Stardust, she made a strange claim: that Jaya had invited her over to the Bachchan home one day. Jaya did not mind the relationship as long as she thought her husband was only having a fling. It's when she realized that he was really emotionally involved, that is when it began hurting her. She called me for dinner one evening and though we spoke about everything but him, before I left that day, she made sure to tell me, "I will never leave Amit whatever happens".'
Scandalous disclosures were part and parcel of being Rekha. But this anecdote about an encounter between the wife and the mistress was truly sensational; and Jaya never refuted it. Whether this really happened is difficult to ascertain but a similar episode featuring the very same lead players was about to unfold on screen. The stars were about to align to bring Jaya, Amitabh and Rekha together on film, in spite of the promise that Jaya had extracted from Amitabh never to act with Rekha again.
A new silsila was soon going to unfold, bringing to life the hushed-up love triangle.
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