In a throwback interview, Rekha once revealed seeing Jaya Bachchan crying as she watched Amitabh Bachchan romancing the former.
Jaya Bachchan is one of Bollywood's most versatile actresses. She reinforced a natural style of acting in mainstream Hindi cinema. She made her acting debut with Satyajit Ray’s Bengali film at the mere age of 15. In a career spanning more than six decades, Jaya awestruck the audience with her effortless acting.
Amitabh Bachchan first met Jaya Bhaduri at the Pune Film Institute in 1970. Jaya was already a star, and Amitabh was trying to make a career in Bollywood. On the sets of Ek Nazar, Cupid struck the two as Jaya developed feelings for Mr Bachchan, and he, too, couldn’t resist her charm. Amitabh and Jaya tied the knot in chat mangni, pat vyaah on June 3, 1973.
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In the world of glamour, a leading actor’s name often gets linked with many actresses. From Zeenat Aman and Parveen Babi to Smita Patil, Amitabh Bachchan’s name was linked with many heroines. But the one name that drew the maximum attention was Rekha. Although Mr Bachchan has never addressed the rumours, Rekha, on the other hand, has admitted her devotion to him.
After three years of Amitabh and Jaya’s wedding, rumours about his affair with Rekha started doing the rounds, which impacted his marital life with Jaya. Once, in a throwback interview with Stardust, Rekha recalled an incident when she saw Jaya crying while watching the love scenes between Amitabh and Rekha in the film, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar.
Narrating the whole incident, Rekha revealed that she saw a stream of tears pouring down Jaya Bachchan’s face during the trial show of Muqaddar Ka Sikandar. In her words:
“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 (Amitabh) 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.”
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After a week of the trial show, Rekha was told by her friends in the industry that Amitabh would no longer work with her. In the same interview, Rekha talked about the same and revealed that she also confronted Mr Bachchan. Elaborating on the same, Rekha said:
“A week later (after the trial show of Muqaddar Ka Sikandar), everybody in the industry was telling me that he (Amitabh Bachchan) 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.”
Do you know how Jaya Bachchan agreed to work in the film Silsila? Yash Chopra found it difficult to bring Amitabh, Jaya, and Rekha together, considering that Jaya was dead against the idea of her husband working with Rekha. As expected, Jaya Bachchan was not at all interested in the film.
Throughout the narration, Jaya was disinterested in working in this film, but it was the climax scene that made her say ‘yes’. Although the film dealt with the bold subject of an extramarital affair, its climax was quite the opposite. It showed a ‘nuptial reunion’, where the husband, Amit Malhotra (Amitabh Bachchan), comes back to his wife, Shobha Malhotra (Jaya), leaving behind his extramarital affair with Chandni (Rekha).
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Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan had a chat mangni pat vyaah, and the reason is quite interesting. Amitabh and Jaya wanted to go to London to celebrate the success of their film, Zanjeer, along with other friends. But Big B’s father, Harivansh Rai Bachchan told him that he could go with Jaya only when the two were married. And on June 3, 1973, the couple embarked on the journey of their ‘happily ever after’.
Despite all the rumours and speculations, Jaya Bachchan stood strong with Amitabh Bachchan. During the testing times, it was her faith in her man which kept their marital life going.
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