Heartiest greetings to an evergreen Rekha on her 59th birthday

Born on October 10, 1954 to Tamil actor Gemini Ganeshan and Telugu actress Pushpavalli, Bhanurekha Ganesan alias Rekha, got an inborn acting talent in her blood. Her childhood days were not very easy as she was a love child and her parents were not married. Rekha followed his father’s footsteps and joined the film industry as a child artiste in 1966 with the Telugu film, Rangula Ratnam.

Little did the world know at that time that Rekha, who entered the industry at a very young age without anybody’s help, would become one of the most sought after actresses and that too by overcoming the language problem. She was forced to leave her school, her father didn’t acknowledge her and her mother was severely ill. She ventured into films to try her luck in a new way. Her first leading role came with the 1970-film Sawan Bhadon which was a box-office success. As she had a dark complexion because of her South Indian origin, she was criticised a lot and used to be called an ‘Ugly Duckling’, the actress revealed in an interview later. In the late 70s Rekha transformed to a gorgeous diva and since then she never looked back throughout her career. She emerged as a dream girl with her following films like Do Anjaane, Ghar and Muqaddar Ka Sikandar.

Khubsoorat helped her bag the maiden Filmfare Best Actress Award for an outstanding portrayal of a young bubbly girl.Rekha and Amitabh Bachchan’s onscreen chemistry was quite liked by the audiences and the duo acted in several films together. Rumours about their off-screen romance kept pouring in and Silsila was their last movie together which also starred Big B’s spouse Jaya Bachchan. Following Silsila, Rekha acted in more mature films likeUmrao Jaan which helped her bag the National Award for Best Actress.Umrao Jaan was followed by several memorable films likeEk Hi Bhool, Kalyug, Utsav, Khoon Bhari Maang and many more. In 2000, Rekha’s acting in Lajja was appreciated a lot by the audience and also the film critics. She also received multiple nominations for her performance.Rekha got married toDelhi-based industrialist Mukesh Aggarwal in 1990 but just a year later Aggarwal committed suicide and the marriage was finished. Presently the evergreen diva lives an isolated life but still she makes public appearances at award functions. We wish the self-made film personality, the gorgeous diva Rekha, a very Happy 59^thBirthday.