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'She is the ultimate cover girl''
Gautam Rajadhyaksha

She is a great observer and has an elephantine memory. She doesn't miss a nuance, a word or an action. She remembers and absorbs everything. She can recall what you wore at a certain meeting.

From this fat little girl, she metamorphosed into a woman. She had style and class. And in that process, she did some of her best films like Umrao Jaan.

When you are talking to her, she is absorbing everything. Sometimes, she has no idea what you are talking about. But she is a good listener. She'll absorb it, go home, go to a bookstore and buy herself a book that'll tell her more about the subject. When you meet her next, she'll be more knowledgeable about the subject.

Work is worship for her. I don't think she has any kind of life or any interest beyond it. She says that beyond work she doesn't know what to do. And she is eager to create a new image to keep her audiences happy. She is the ultimate cover girl.

She has reached a plateau now. She has settled down. She understands she is not the golden girl that she was. But she wants to retain her dignity. You will not find her doing ads. She has got so many television offers.

She's intelligent in so many areas whether it is designing jewellery, or clothes or makeup.

Her psyche is maturing to the extent that she has so much to show. It's pity that we don't have films that Ingrid Bergman or Bette Davis did right through their careers.

50 is just another figure in her life. She is far maturer than that. Yet, there are times when she appears childlike.

I am privileged to know the real Rekha. She is a very shy person despite what people may think. She takes a long time to open up. She has been hurt too often. It's a façade that she puts up in public and audiences buy it.

When she travels she visits museums and tries to learn things. The interviews she gives are interviews that people love to get from her.

Over the years, she should be given a chance to express herself in another field -- maybe writing. She may not be a great writer but she is great raconteur. But she needs to get things said because she has several lifetimes rolled into one.

As told to Lata Khubchandani

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