Rekha 66th birthday interview

Jyothi Venkatesh

To mark Rekha’s 66th birthday, and wish her on behalf of bollyy.com and Mayapuri, we reproduce this very rare interview with REKHA by JYOTHI VENKATESH which appeared for the first time in the now defunct youth times dt August 4-17, 1978, exactly 42 years ago.

Elfin charm, a curvaceous figure oozing sex appeal in capital letters from every pore of her vivacious body .A I-don’t-care –what –the –hell- the -world –thinks –of me attitude to the society, a dare -devil by nature and a rare combination of beauty and brains. This, in short, constitutes Rekha, the sex bomb of the Hindi screen today, who ranks third in the race for position next only to Hema Malini and Zeenat Aman.

To pin down the elusive Rekha, for an in-depth interview is like asking for the moon. Especially after her association with Amitabh Bachchan, who still continues to cold shoulder the film press. Rekha played hide and seek for this interview with me. However, undaunted I pursued her like a hound and bumped into her on the sets of Ramanand Sagar’s Prem Bandhan in which she is working with Rajesh Khanna and Moushumi Chatterji and dance director Kamal ‘s Dost Dushman in which she is playing a double role opposite Rajesh Khanna and Shatrughan Sinha.

According to Rekha, she has stopped giving interviews to journalists because she is fed up of the itsy bitsy image of a nymphomaniac that the film press has saddled her with today, in the wake of her romantic escapades with Vinod Mehra, Kiran Kumar, Yash Kohli and Amitabh Bachchan. “Have I no job other than jumping in and out of the bed of every eligible star in film land?” She flared, as the conversation veered round to her so-called ‘reputation’ in the industry.

Her performance in Imman Dharam recently fetched for Rekha an award for the best actress for the first time in her career. She seems to be thrilled about her having bagged the Filmfare award for the best actress and having proved to the world at large that she too can act. “If today I am not acclaimed as a fantastic actress, the reason is that I am just not inspired to give out my best in the kind of roles that I am saddled with by the producers. Tell me which film today affords the heroines with an opportunity to shine in an industry dominated by heroes”?

Rekha has a point there. Of late films with a heroine oriented theme have floundered at the box office badly. Like Dream Girl starring the hit pair of Dharmendra and Hema Malini, Doosara Aadmi starring Raakhee in the pivotal role with Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh, Kadambari with Shabana Azmi in the title role with Vijay Arora and recently Satyam Shivam Sundaram with Zeenat Aman in the pivotal role. And naturally every producer wishes to play safe by launching projects which boast of a lion’s share by the heroes.

Rekha has come a long way in films ever since her debut in films with Mohan Sehgal’s Sawan Bhadon opposite Navin Nischol seven years ago. Navin Nischol is down and out today with hardly half a dozen films to his credit on the floors, while Rekha is zooming ahead in the rat race for super stardom judged by the banners that she has managed to bag in the industry. She is liked by each and every one in the industry with her affable nature and kind hearted disposition.

“I want to prove my mettle as an actress. It is not that I want to end up only as a star. It is just a coincidence that even my worst films have clicked at the box office and virtually thrown stardom at my doorstep. I rarely get roles which I enjoy to play. Like my role in Ghar directed by Manik Chatterjee. After Elaan I acted with Vinod Mehra in Ghar and enjoyed every moment of my work in the film because it was a meaningful role and afforded scope for me to get my teeth into it. It posed a challenge to the actress in me.”

Rekha says that she is prepared to work with dedication, concentrating all her time and attention on her roles and taking an individual interest in all her films like Zeenat Aman and Parveen Babi. Yet numerous are the occasions when Rekha has ditched her producers after confirming the dates allotted to them by her. Producer Shiv Kumar suffered heavily when Rekha ditched him after promising him that she would join Sunil Dutt and the unit of his film at Aurangabad where the outdoor schedule of the film was scheduled to be held. Till today, his film Ahimsa is incomplete because he dared to complain about Rekha’s irresponsible behavior to the Producer’s Council.

More recently Rekha was replaced by Reena Roy in Narendra Bedi’s Insaan in which Jeetendra and Vinod Khanna are the co-stars. Prakash Mehra hasn’t replaced her because of the fact that she dared to play truant on the sets of Daku and Muqaddar Ka Sikandar. What Rekha needs today is a director who can really make her work and hold her reins in his control. She is like a spoilt kid who is too pampered to turn over a new leaf.

Today, Rekha has several films on hand which include Prem Bandhan opposite Rajesh Khanna, Lambu Dada opposite Amitabh Bachchan, Mr Natwarlal with Amitabh Bachchan, Bhola Bhala opposite Rajesh Khanna and Moushumi Chatrterji, Ram Balram opposite Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan, Mohan Sehgal’s Kartavya opposite Dharmendra, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar opposite Amitabh Bachchan and Vinod Khanna and Raaj Kumar Kohli’s Jaani Dushman opposite a horde of stars like Jeetendra , Sanjeev Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Vinod Mehra, Shatrughan Sinha etc.

What Rekha needs to inch ahead in her career which is at the moment at the crossroads, is perseverance and a little bit of enthusiasm for her work. Because all said and done, Rekha is the chip of the old Gemini Ganesan block. Both Gemini Ganesan and Pushpavalli, her parents were the top stars of the Tamil screen once upon a time and naturally talent runs in her veins. Her father down South, the super star Gemini Ganesan told me recently during my visit to Madras, “What does Rekha not have that either Zeenat Aman or Hema Malini have? She has everything that is needed to make it to the top. Yet she is speeding ahead in her career at a snail’s pace. Why is it that in spite of her beauty and talent, Rekha is not the No 1 actress of the Hindi screen?”

The dice are cast on her table. It is up to Rekha to accept it or ignore it. Otherwise it will be too late. Because, round the bend, other actresses are awaiting their turn, like Parveen Babi who has better banners than even Rekha, Reena Roy who is proving to be a good actress in the wake of performance in Apnapan and Bindiya, who though she hasn’t attained stardom, will be a serious threat to other heroines because of her youth and the right knack to land herself with plum roles in the right films , which ultimately click at the box office.

N.B- Before we wind up this article, it is interesting to note that Rekha has been replaced by Bindiya in producer N.C. Sippy’s film Golmaal being directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee.