Rekha

Rekha married Delhi-based industrialist and television manufacturer Mukesh Agarwal on 4 March 1990 after being introduced by a mutual friend, fashion designer Bina Ramani. The marriage ended in tragedy seven months later when Agarwal died by suicide in London while Rekha was abroad. Following his death, Rekha faced intense media scrutiny and hostility in the press before resuming her acting career. She has never remarried and has no children.

Throughout her career, her personal relationships attracted considerable attention from the media and public. Persistent rumours claimed she had married actor Vinod Mehra in 1973, but Rekha explicitly denied this in a 2004 television interview with Simi Garewal, describing Mehra as a close friend and well-wisher. Her frequent on-screen pairing with Amitabh Bachchan during the late 1970s and early 1980s also generated widespread public speculation, culminating in Yash Chopra's 1981 drama Silsila, in which they starred together alongside Bachchan's wife, Jaya Bachchan. Rekha resides in the Bandra neighbourhood of Mumbai.

Rekha was born Bhanurekha Ganesan on 10 October 1954 in Madras (now Chennai) to South Indian film actors Gemini Ganesan and Pushpavalli. Growing up in an unstable domestic environment, she had an estranged relationship with her father, who did not initially acknowledge her. Raised primarily by her mother and grandmother, she attended the Sacred Heart Convent School in Church Park, Chennai, where she developed an interest in dance and sports.

She entered the film industry as a child performer, making an uncredited appearance in the Telugu-language drama Inti Guttu in 1958 and later appearing alongside her mother and sister Radha in Rangula Ratnam (1966). In 1968, facing family financial difficulties, Rekha dropped out of school during ninth grade to pursue full-time acting on her mother's urging. Her first lead role came in the 1969 Kannada film Operation Jackpot Nalli C.I.D 999, starring opposite Dr. Rajkumar.

Moving to Bombay in 1969, she was cast by director Mohan Sehgal in Sawan Bhadon (1970). The film was a commercial success and marked her Hindi film debut. Early in her career, however, she faced harsh criticism in the film press regarding her weight, wardrobe, and initial lack of fluency in Hindi. In response, she undertook a disciplined regimen of yoga, diet, Hindi-language coaching, and dramatic training, which transformed her screen persona by the mid-1970s.

Her first major dramatic turning point arrived with the 1978 drama Ghar, directed by Manik Chatterjee, in which she portrayed a newly married woman coping with the aftermath of a traumatic assault. Her performance received widespread critical acclaim and earned her a Filmfare Award nomination for Best Actress. Later that year, she starred as the courtesan Zohrabai in the blockbuster Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, which became one of the highest-grossing films of the decade.

In 1980, Rekha won her first Filmfare Award for Best Actress for Hrishikesh Mukherjee's comedy Khubsoorat, playing the exuberant Manju Dayal. During this period, she deliberately expanded her repertoire beyond commercial cinema by taking roles in parallel cinema, the Indian neo-realist art film movement. She played Supriya in Shyam Benegal's Kalyug (1981), Neelima in Vijeta (1982), and the courtesan Vasantasena in Girish Karnad's Utsav (1984).

Her defining role came in Muzaffar Ali's 1981 period drama Umrao Jaan, an adaptation of Mirza Hadi Ruswa's classic Urdu novel. For her portrayal of the tragic courtesan and poet, Rekha learned the nuances of the Urdu language. The performance earned her the National Film Award for Best Actress and is widely cited among the finest acting achievements in Indian cinema.

In 1988, Rekha pioneered a wave of women-centric revenge dramas with Rakesh Roshan's Khoon Bhari Maang. Portraying an unassuming widow who survives an attempt on her life and remakes herself to seek justice, she won her second Filmfare Award for Best Actress. She continued in similar action-oriented roles in films such as Phool Bane Angaray (1991), which became a box-office success.

In the mid-1990s, Rekha took on unconventional parts that challenged standard casting conventions. She portrayed an underworld gangster in the action thriller Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi (1996), winning the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Star Screen Award for Best Villain. She also starred in Mira Nair's erotic period drama Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996) and Basu Bhattacharya's Aastha: In the Prison of Spring (1997).

During the 2000s, Rekha transitioned into notable supporting parts. She earned praise for her role as Ramdulari in Rajkumar Santoshi's feminist drama Lajja (2001) and as Maharani Mandira Devi in Khalid Mohamed's Zubeidaa (2001). She also portrayed the devoted mother and grandmother Sonia Mehra in the science-fiction blockbusters Koi... Mil Gaya (2003) and Krrish (2006).

Rekha has maintained an enigmatic public profile, rarely giving media interviews or attending social gatherings, which led film commentators to compare her reserved lifestyle to that of Greta Garbo. In 2012, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the International Indian Film Academy Awards, where she was recognised for her lasting contributions to Indian cinema.

In April 2012, Rekha was nominated by President Pratibha Patil, on the recommendation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, under provisions allowing nominated seats for individuals with distinguished achievements in the arts. She served a six-year term on the parliamentary Committee on Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, concluding her tenure in April 2018.