'Rajesh Khanna was secretly married to Anju Mahendru, after the story broke, it was a trigger for him to marry Dimple Kapadia,' says Shobhaa De

Rajesh Khanna is often called the first superstar of Hindi cinema as one had not seen his level of stardom ever. One has often heard stories of his female fan following. His car was often filled with lipstick marks and many women wore white sarees when he married Dimple Kapadia. But before Khanna married Dimple, a leading magazine broke the story of his secret marriage with Anju Mahendru. They were in a relationship and reports also suggested that they lived in together.

In a recent interview, veteran journalist and author Shobhaa De has now opened up on breaking the story for Stardust when she was the editor. She said during a chat with Vickey Lalwani, "The very first issue which was scoop was about Rajesh Khanna if he was secretly married. That came from Mr Nari Hira because he knew Anju Mahendru's mother very well. They were friends. So she tipped him off and we thought it would be a great first cover story and would attract a lot of attention because we had called him a phenomenon. I have never seen that kind of fandom for anyone, before and ever since. Not even all the Khans put together can match up the kind of passion and hysteria that Rajesh Khanna in his prime generated.




When further asked if that story was true, De said, "It was true. I would imagine it was 100 percent true as they couldn't counter it enough. It kind of was a trigger for him to marry Dimple after the story broke if I remember correctly."


Rajesh Khanna married a much younger Dimple Kapadia in 1973. The couple had two daughters Twinkle and Rinke Khanna.