Rekha did not marry Sanjay Dutt, people don't read properly: Her biographer con...

On a dull Sunday afternoon, suddenly a news started breaking the internet: Rekha considers Sanjay Dutt her husband in her heart of hearts and applies vermillion ‘in his name’.

Many publications referred writer Yasser Usman’s book Rekha – The Untold Story as the source of the news.

However, Usman has now denied the news in a conversation with HT. He says, “This is wrong. Nothing of this sort has been mentioned in my book. People don’t read properly.”

He narrates the incident quoted in his book, “Rekha and Sanjay Dutt were working in a film together, probably Zameen Aasmaan (1984). The rumours of their affair surfaced at that time. In fact, some went on to say that they got married. These rumours became so strong that Sanjay Dutt had to deny the allegations in a magazine. It was an official denial.”

“There wasn’t any marriage. This became big only because Dutt had to deny it officially,” adds Usman.

In fact, Usman’s book has these lines: During these years a succession of names came to be associated with her: Shailendra Singh, Kamal Haasan, producer Rajeev Kumar, even Sanjay Dutt. One fine day, out of the blue, came the news of her marriage with Sanjay Dutt. An unfair rumour, because she was sincerely helping him recover from a rough patch. And the release of their film, Zameen Aasman, gained from the rumour. Sanjay Dutt had to actually issue a formal denial of their rumoured marriage.

These days when fake news has become a monstrous problem and fact-checking has taken a backseat, Yasser Usman can be termed the latest victim of click-bait journalism.

The author tweets at Twitter/@nawabjha