'While Others Experimented With Drugs, I Was In Love'

'When you are in love, you are preoccupied just with that.'
'Nothing else registers. It's like being drugged.'

The youthful Rekha turned 70 on Thursday, October 10.

The diva discusses various elements of her life, including the fact that she wanted to have children, in a fascinating 1994 interview to Dinesh Raheja, then editor of Movie magazine.

In this concluding part of the interview, she recalls her first Hindi film Sawan Badhon, "When my hero Navin Nischol saw me, he was ready to puke. He was like 'Yeh namuna kahan se le aaye aap? Itni kaali aur moti'."

What motivates you to continue working?

Success is not important. Now, the human side of me inspires me. My aim in life is to be a perfect human being.

I want to be friends with people and relate to them normally.

How much do memories mean to you?

Everything. My memories are very personal.

Do you remember your debut-making film?

I made my debut in my aunt, Anjali Devi's Ammakosam. I was about 12 and had just come back from my hostel in Salem district.

My mom said it was either films or study.

I thought I'd rather do something where I didn't have to use my brains.

Besides, my mum said we needed the money.

How did you get your first Hindi film, Sawan Bhadon?

When my mother took me to meet the director Mohan Sehgal, I was in a defiant mood. I didn't want to act in Hindi films. I didn't know a word of the language.

Every time he asked me a question, I just defiantly replied, 'No!'

'Hindi film mein kaam karogi?

'No.'

'Hindi aati hai?'

'No.'

He smiled and said, 'No. Yehi dialogue bolna hai meri picture mein.'

When my hero Navin Nischol saw me, he was ready to puke.

He was like, 'Yeh namuna kahan se le aaye aap? Itni kaali aur moti.'

Do you remember your first day at shooting for Sawan Bhadon?

I had very long hair and my two hairdressers Khatoon and Khatija were in a fix because those were the days of bouffants.

If my long thick hair was packed into a wig, it looked like a pahad on my head.

In desperation, they chopped off my hair to shoulder length.

I was scared to tell my mother, she'd have killed me. And I had to stand for an hour while someone body painted me from head to toe.

Because in those days, heroines were required to be fair.

In the early stage of your career, you did a much-talked-about kissing scene with Biswajeet in Anjaana Safar.

I didn't do it, I was taken by surprise.

Nothing could've compensated, nothing can wipe off what I felt.

Not even the coverage it got in Life magazine.

How did your metamorphosis from a buxom beauty to a svelte sophisticate happen?

Before working on my weight, I started working with my make-up man Ram Dada. I saw that my features could be enhanced with the right make-up.

I had atrociously long eye-lashes in Rampur Ka Lakshman, which I felt was not me.

Ram Dada came to my rescue (earlier he was with Meena Kumari). He taught me to apply make-up for only two years.

After that he said, 'Baby tum khud karo, tumhara haath saaf ho jaayega.'

I'm a painter, you see, so strokes come easily to me. Make-up is another art form.

Is it true that your mom, actress Pushpavalli, was hardly there by your side when you were a child? She would be away on shootings.

Not at all. From the time I was 13 to the time she died, I was the only one who had her all to myself.

My dad wasn't there normally.

He was an absentee father.

Can you relate to your father, actor Gemini Ganesh, since he was absent for much of your life?

Feelings are everything, Dinesh, time is not so important.

So even when I met my father after many years, I could strike a rapport with him.

In the '70s, one heard a lot of the Juhu crowd. Were you part of the Parveen Babi-Danny Denzongpa-Kabir Bedi-Vinod Khanna gang?

Very much so. There were others too. Jayaji, Amitji, Raakheedi, Gulzarbhai ... we were all like a family.

Did you ever try drugs, alcohol, listening to spiritual discourses etc?

No. While others experimented with drugs, EST, Rajneesh, I was into yoga. And love.

And when you are in love, you are preoccupied just with that.

Nothing else registers. It's like being drugged.