"Amitabh Bachchan Should Have Married Rekha": What Umrao Jaan Director Told Actress's Biographer

NDTV

18-06-2025

It has been decades since Bollywood's biggest superstars, Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha, last shared screen space. But trust lovers and watchers of showbiz to never miss a what-could-have-been theory.
Headlines on film portals once buzzed with reports of Rekha's rumoured association with Amitabh Bachchan. Then there was the entire casting and making of the movie Silsila by Yash Chopra, with the late director himself saying how he got actor and wife of Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, to agree to be on the same set as Big B and Rekha.
What Umrao Jaan Director Said About Rekha And Amitabh
Silsila hit the screens in 1981, the same year as Rekha's seminal film, Umrao Jaan. Umrao Jaan is set for a re-release later this month, and it is worth revisiting what director Muzaffar Ali once said about Rekha, and her relationship with Amitabh Bachchan.
In Rekha's biography, Rekha: The Untold Story (Juggernaut, 2016), author Yasser Usman writes about director Muzaffar Ali telling him what he thought about the entire Rekha and Amitabh Bachchan saga.
The Untold Story
"She [Rekha] is a very sensitive woman... Amitabh Bachchan used to come and sit on our sets, during the Delhi shooting of Umrao Jaan. That's a fact. Whenever referring to Amitabh, she always spoke using 'inko, inhone', like women do who consider themselves married. I think she considered herself married," Muzaffar Ali told Yasser Usman, writes the latter in his book.
The author goes on to write, "Unlike many of Rekha's and Amitabh's colleagues in the film industry, Muzaffar Ali was not cagey. He was direct and unequivocal: 'She is and she was in love with him. He should have definitely given her an identity. Amitabh should have married Rekha.'"
A Marriage, A Rumour, A Movie, A Legend
Amitabh Bachchan married fellow actor and his co-star of several films, Jaya Bachchan, in 1973. In the 80s, when rumours of Rekha's association with Amitabh Bachchan were all over glossy magazines, director Yash Chopra gave an interview to BBC Asia 's Sonia Deol about Silsila.
Chopra said, "I was always on tenterhooks and scared because it was real life coming into reel life. Jaya is his wife and Rekha is his girlfriend; the same story is going on. Anything could have happened because they are working together."
Silsila, a Yash Chopra film about an extramarital affair, did not find many takers in 1980s India. The film was declared a commercial flop.
However, decades since, Silsila has gained a cult status; a legend that has endured, largely because of the trio at the centre: Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, and Rekha.