Biography

10th October, 1954 - The Birth of a Legend.

Rekha was born as BhanuRekha Ganesan, in a Tamil-speaking home. Her mother Pushpavali was apopular telegu actress and her father Gemini Ganesan, the popular telegu actor. Her parents were not married, and she had seven sisters and one brother, all with the same father, but different mothers. Due to financial problems, BhanuRekha was forced to join the filmi duniya at the age of 16. First rejected as she was plump and dark, she got her break in the 1970 film Sawan Bhadon and rose to dizzing heights of popularity.
She was given her screen name of Rekha. In the early 70's Rekha played the role of a glamour girl. Her first performance orientated role was of an amitious housewife in Do Aanjane, 1976, opposite Amitabh Bachchan. Gradually attaining fame, practising yoga to maintain her body, she gave many box office hits, like Nagin, Maqaddar Ka Sikandar - in which she was more noticed than the films heroine Rakhee- and Mr Natwarlal. By now Rekha had left her teenage days behind and reached her mid 20's and gained her full beauty. She shot to the top with films like Khoobsurat, Judaai, Kalyug, Umrao Jaan, Utsav and Khoon Bari Maang are just a few of them. The 1990's saw Rekha in her avenging roles. Although many were flops, as other heroines like Raveena and Madhuri had arrived, she still gave amazing performances in films like Phool Bane Angarey, Madam X and Insaaf Ki Devi. She also took on the role of a nagin, in Sheshnaag, 1990. She even tried her hand at snake-dancing. Also, Rekha took on the role of a villian, in the 1996 film, Khiladiyon Ki Khiladi. She was nicknamed The Bollywood Queen andThe Queen of Mujra.
Her unmatchable beauty, slender figure and exellent acting abilities got her many admirers, including popular Bollywood actors such as Kiran Kumar, Jeetendra, Vinod Mehra, and Amitabh Bachchan. In the 1990's she married buisnessman Mukesh Agarwal - lucky man - but he commited suicide a year later.

Rekha is, was and still is one of the most popular Bollywood Actors ever. She is noted for her versatility and the ability to sustain her staus. Rekha is considered to be the Eternal Diva of Bollywood. Throughout the 1970s till date she has been considered as a Sex Symbol, known for her beauty, acting talent and dancing skills. Her most well known trademarks are her seductive tone and mersimising eyes.
Being very friendly, Rekha has helped many actresses. She helped the popluar actress Neetu Singh on using make-up, she taught another popular actress Reena Roy, with her hair and make-up, popular actress Dimple Kapadia on which colours to use on her face and SuperStar Sridevi. It was Rekha who helped Sridevi immensely, she helped her to know Bombay, learn Hindi, make-up and hair styling. The two were good friends, until thier relationship went sour, and although I love Sridevi, she was quite rude to Rekha in one of her interviews, saying that Rekha was always hanging around her film shooting in the 1980's as Rekha had nothing to do, this was not true as Rekha was a in demand actress in the 80's. Also that she didn't think that Rekha had a right to tell Sridevi what she should wear and everything. However, I'm in doubt that all those words actually came out of Sridevi's mouth, many were probably made up by some journalist.