Interesting facts about Bollywood Diva 'Rekha'

Rekha, or Bhanurekha Ganesan, is a living legend of Bollywood. She was and still has been stealing the hearts of her fans through her timeless beauty and acting. Her journey in Bollywood has not only been about her flawless acting, but has also been a mixture of secrets and rumours. Keep reading to find some interesting facts about the Bollywood diva Rekha that we bet you did not know.

1. Born out of wedlock!

Bhanurekha Ganesan, or as we know her, Rekha, is the daughter of Gemini Ganesan, South Indian actor, and Telugu actress, Pushpavalli. Her father did not marry Pushpavalli, and also did not acknowledge his paternity when she was still a kid. She has a sister, one half-brother and five half-sisters.

#2.Ugly duckling

Rekha did not like acting, but was forced to work in B and C grade movies due to financial problems. She quit her school to support her family financially. She started her acting career with a Telugu movie,Rangula Ratnam. She was also considered as an ugly duckling before she established herself and got her break in Bollywood.

#3. No Hindi, no movie

Rekha struggled to communicate with her co-workers as she could not speak Hindi, during her initial days in Bollywood.

#4. Complete makeover

The actress took some time out and concentrated only on herself, and entered Bollywood as a timeless beauty in the 1970s. She transformed herself by routine exercises and diet. And much of the credit for her makeover goes to none other than, legendary actor, Amitabh Bachchan with whom Rekha was believed to be have had a rampant affair.

#5. Never ending link-ups

As her career in Bollywood flourished, she was linked with different Bollwyood actors like Vinod Mehra and Raj Babbar. Even during the later years of her career, she was linked with young actors like Akshay Kumar. We obviously did not forget the rumours of her affair with Amitabh Bachchan, who fought with a man troubling her during the shoot of Ganga Ki Saugandh.

#6. Husband woes

She married Mukesh Agrawal, an industrialist, who committed suicide, just a year after their marriage. Rumours were that he could not tolerate Amitabh and Rekha’s affair, though he left a note saying, “Don’t blame anyone”.

#7. Rumoured marriage

Image Courtesy: Ghar

There was also another rumour about the actress being secretly married to actor Vinod Mehra. But, Rekha never admitted to this. In fact, she openly denied this rumour on the talk show Rendezvous With Simi Garewal.

Image Courtesy: Indian Express

#8. The prestigious National Film award!

She won the National Film Award for best actress in the movie Umrao Jaan. She learnt Urdu for this movie and also confessed, “After reading the script, I had a strange feeling that I had Umrao in me.” She also acted in several parallel films along with the mainstream, maintaining a healthy balance between the two.

#9. Yogic beauty

Rekha practices yoga every day. She believes that it is yoga and the highly disciplined life that she leads that have made her an ageless beauty in Bollywood, today. She also admires different ayurvedic spa treatments.

#10. Ek chutki sindoor

Rekha, after the demise of her husband did not marry again. Yet she has often been spotted with sindoor (a sign of a married Hindu woman) at public outings. And even more interesting than this is the fact that, no one till date had the nerve to question her about the mysterious sindoor in hermaang!