Rekha is a legend and one of the finest actresses Indian cinema ever has seen. The actress continues to woo the audience till date every time he makes an appearance. However, unfortunately, Rekha's personal life has never been short of struggle or turbulence. Rekha had a difficult childhood as she started working very early on and thus, also grew up quickly. The actress also wasn't lucky in love. While she is often linked to many men, her relationship with
Amitabh Bachchan has been the most talked about. Rekha later married Delhi-based industrialist Mukesh Aggarwal. In a recent interview, Rekha's friend Bina Ramani who is a fashion designer, author and entrepreneur has opened up on her relationship with Bachhcan and why she chose to marry Mukesh.
Bina said that while Rekha was deeply in love with Amitabh, who was already married to Jaya Bachchan, she eventually understood that he would never publicly accept their relationship, especially after entering politics. Bina recalled that around the same time, Rekha visited her in New York and expressed a desire to marry “someone important”. It was Bina who later introduced Mukesh Aggarwal to Rekha. She said she first heard about Mukesh through a friend and eventually met him at a party in Delhi.
Talking about that first introduction, Bina said during a chat with ANI, “My friend described Mukesh as the most die hard, ardent fan of Rekha. She told me he could recite any dialogue of Rekha from any movie and he knows her entire life.”
Sharing her own impression of Mukesh, Bina said, “He was not descriptive. Nothing much, he was short and dark, but when you got to talking and engaging with him, he was very nice, but he could pass you like six times and you would not recognise him. She, on the other hand, was a diva.” She added that Mukesh was extremely sincere in his admiration for Rekha. “With so much sincerity in his eyes, he told me if he could just speak to Rekha. He said, ‘If there is a possibility that I could meet her someday, you have no idea what it would mean to me, and what you would have achieved, she would be the happiest person on earth.’”
Bina then recalled how she introduced Mukesh and Rekha over the phone. “I think I introduced them on the phone, and she didn’t know what he even looked like. She spoke to him for 2-3 minutes and told me to give his number to her. She told me not to give her number to him. She took his number and then called him.”
According to her, the two began speaking regularly, though Rekha had her doubts about Mukesh’s appearance. “They were in two different cities. Bombay and Delhi. He was over the moon. He could not believe that this has happened to him, and then they exchanged pictures and then she calls me and says, ‘Can you see him standing next to me?’ I mean, there is Amitabh Bachchan and it’s her vision. So I tell her, ‘No, not really, but he seems like a nice man, but this is in your hands and I don’t want to take any decision for you’.”
Bina believes Rekha’s emotional state played a role in her decision. “But she realised what feels good for her at that time from that heart break that she was in. And perhaps she wanted that obsessive love.”
She also spoke about Rekha and Mukesh’s first meeting in person, which took place at a friend’s house in Mumbai. “They seem to be happy. They have spoken so much already, and they knew quite a lot about each other, so maybe it didn’t take that long and from there on.”
Bina said she was shocked when she soon heard about their wedding. “Then suddenly we read in the paper or TV that they got married. I was in shock. I didn’t expect it to be so soon. I expected certain more conversations between us,” she said.
Mukesh Aggarwal died by suicide just seven months after marrying Rekha. Reflecting on the marriage, Bina described it as unrealistic. “I think in due course with Rekha‘s life being in Bombay, it was part fantasy, wishing for the best, her life was deeply into Bombay life. There was no way she could have adjusted to Delhi. She must have come to Delhi a few times but I was no longer in touch with her,” she said.
Rekha herself later spoke about the emotional journey she went through after Mukesh’s death during an interview with Simi Grewal. “One went through the whole gamut of feelings. The initial shock and then denial that ‘no, this can’t be really happening to me’ and later on, this intense anger and then you go on this self pity trip that ‘what did I do wrong? I never meant to hurt anybody’. Then trying to understand it, in vain, of course, because you never understand it. And then, finally, of course, acceptance.”
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