Born as Bhanurekha to the renowned South Indian actor, Gemini Ganesan and actress, Pushpavalli, Rekha is one of the most popular names in Bollywood. Her life had always been tragic. From her birth out of wedlock, her father’s refusal to accept her to forcefully getting into acting because of financial constraints, Rekha was always a survivor.
Rekha had a rough start in the glamour world as she started working quite early in the South Indian film industry. She was fat, dusky and could not speak Hindi. She faced a lot of criticism for her dark and plump look. Her sufferings were not restricted to her looks. Rekha, who had no interest in acting, faced a lot of traumatic experiences in the initial stages of her career.
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One of the shocking events of her life was when one of her co-stars forcibly kissed her. Rekha was merely 15 when she starred in the Bengali film, Anjana Safar along with Bengali actor, Biswajeet Chatterjee. It was during the shooting of the film when the then 33-year-old actor forced himself upon her.
The infamous incident is mentioned in Rekha's biography, Rekha: The Untold Story, where the author revealed that Biswajeet decided to kiss Rekha during a romantic scene without even informing her about the same. The director of the film, Kuljeet Pal was aware of the kiss. Although, the actor later stated that the kiss was a crucial part of the scene and was the idea of the director.
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During the scene, the forceful kiss happened, and Rekha fell victim to it. An excerpt from the book revealed the state of poor Rekha, who froze in shock. The excerpt can be read as:
“As soon as the director Raj Nawathe said ‘action’, Biswajeet took Rekha in his arms and pressed his lips on hers. Rekha was stunned. This kiss had never been mentioned to her. The camera kept rolling; neither was the director ordering ‘cut’ nor was Biswajeet letting go of her. For all five minutes, Biswajeet kept kissing Rekha. Unit members were whistling and cheering. Her eyes were tightly shut, but they were full of tears.”
Rekha made her acting debut at the mere age of 13 due to poor financial conditions at her home. After doing small roles in South Indian films, Rekha made her Bollywood debut in the film, Sawan Bhadon in 1970. However, after a series of unsuccessful films, Rekha rose to fame with films like Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Khubsoorat and Umrao Jaan.
Apart from her professional life, Rekha’s personal life too gained a lot of limelight because of her alleged linkups and affairs. From her complicated marriage to businessman, Mukesh Agarwal, flings with Jeetendra, Kiran Kumar, Vinod Mehra, Sanjay Dutt, and Akshay Kumar and a scintillating affair with the already married, Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha’s love life has always been in the headlines.
Well, it is quite shocking that an actress of Rekha’s stature had to bear such traumatic experiences in her acting career!
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