The Making Of Umrao Jaan: How Rekha's Most Iconic Role Was Shaped By Personal Loss And Amitabh Bachchan

NDTV

20-06-2025

"Umrao Jaan ki taareef karna toh suraj ko chiraagh dikhana hai. Aisi haseen ke paristaan ki paree zehar kha le. Shaaira aisi ke ustaad kaan pakde. Aur aawaaz... aah, shola sa lapak jaaye hai, awaaz toh dekho."
("To praise Umrao Jaan is akin to lighting a lamp in the face of the blazing sun. So beautiful that fairies die of envy. A poetess so skilled that the greatest admit defeat. And a voice like a flame ablaze")
With these words, Gauhar Mirza (played by Naseeruddin Shah) painted a portrait of Umrao (Rekha) for Nawab Sultan (Farooq Sheikh) in the classic film Umrao Jaan. And thus Rekha slipped, seamlessly, from mainstream Bollywood glamour, romance and comedy into a parallel universe of grace, elegance and intensity.
Rekha's crown jewel and Muzaffar Ali's elegiac masterpiece, Umrao Jaan (1981), returns to theatres on June 27, restored in 4K by NFAI and NFDC. Having chronicled Rekha's life in her biography Rekha The Untold Story, I've always believed Umrao Jaan to be her most hauntingly resonant performance. Director Muzaffar Ali agreed that it was a role that seemed to draw not just on her craft, but on something deeper, more private. A role that demanded everything she had, emotionally and artistically.
But how did this classic come into being?
Umrao Jaan wasn't planned as just another film riding on Rekha's stardom; it was a labour of love crafted by a passionate group of artists who believed they were making something timeless. And they did.
It began not with spectacle but stillness, with director Muzaffar Ali's deep reverence for poetry, music, and mood. Muzaffar Ali, a designer, painter and poet- an aesthete - apart from being a film director, recreated the melancholy of and nostalgia for Awadh of the mid-nineteenth century, a time when Lucknawi tehzeeb, music, poetry and dance flourished, when Courtesans were an intrinsic part of that cultural milieu.
Drawn to Mirza Hadi Ruswa's 19th-century novel Umrao Jaan Ada that was set during the decadent period of the 1840s, Ali envisioned a film that would unfold like a melancholic ghazal, graceful and unhurried.
But trouble surfaced early on. A lawyer raised doubts, questioning whether the film could authentically capture the elegance of 19th-century Lucknow. "When I was making 'Umrao Jaan', a lawyer was against the film, and it was not just any lawyer, but the lawyer who contested the Babri Masjid case - Zafaryab Jilani.
Unka mudda ye tha ki-Mirza Hadi Ruswa (the author of 'Umrao Jaan Ada' novel) ki rooh ko taqleef ho jayegi," recalled Muzaffar Ali, who then found out that the rights of the film were given by Mirza Hadi Ruswa to Banaras Hindu University. Ali said, "My father was a friend of the then VC of BHU, and the VC gave those rights to me. As I had rights to the book, now I was free to make 'Umrao Jaan'."
With the rights secured, it was time for the casting of Umrao Jaan. The lead role demanded a seasoned, deeply nuanced performer. The genre already had a towering benchmark in Kamal Amrohi's Pakeezah (1972), a cult classic about a courtesan's life. Anyone stepping into this role had to match that depth and intensity.
"Rekha ki aankhon mei ek gir kar uthne waali kaifiyat thi"
I asked Muzaffar Ali, having already worked with the brilliant Smita Patil in Gaman, why he chose Rekha to play Umrao?
"Smita's eyes were captivating, but her manner of talking, I felt, would not fit," Muzaffar Ali told me, adding that he was at Hotel Taj in Bombay when he saw the photo of Rekha in a magazine, " Unki aankhon mei ek gir kar uthne waali kaifiyat thi, ek tevar tha. It was Umrao's gaze. This is a striking feature of Rekha, which draws from her past. Her eyes conveyed the experience of having been broken and then having pulled herself together ... Life shakes up people, and if they have an artist within them, then she gets more polished in the process. Rekha is a living example of this."
Muzaffar decided to sign Rekha on the basis of this photograph alone. He went to meet Rekha with then wife Subhashini Ali and screenwriter Shama Zaidi. There wasn't a formal script narration. He simply told Rekha about the character graph and that the film wasn't backed by other stars. Rekha listened and connected deeply with the character and said yes instantly. Her nod not only sealed the role, but it also made the film commercially viable, as she was the reigning star of the time.
The tragic story of Umrao Jaan begins in the year 1840. In an act of vengeance, the young Ameeran is abducted from her father's house and sold to Khanam Jaan, the owner of a brothel in Lucknow. Renamed Umrao, she is trained to become a courtesan and started to captivate men of wealth and nobility. Umrao falls in love with Nawab Sultan (Farooq Sheikh), but he marries another woman. She then meets and elopes with the dashing bandit chieftain, Faiz Ali, who is subsequently killed by the police. Umrao unsuccessfully tries to flee the life of a courtesan. All around her, the old cultural environment of Awadh is crumbling and fast disappearing. Broken and disillusioned, solitude and poetry remain her only companions.
The Sound of Umrao
Music was as vital a character in the film as Umrao herself. Initially, Muzaffar Ali approached Jaidev, who had composed for his debut Gaman, but felt his music lacked the spark to capture Awadh's intricate spirit. A conversation with veteran composer Naushad followed, but their working styles didn't align. Then came Khayyam, the third choice, who delivered the unforgettable songs that would forever define the film's musical soul.
The Awadh tradition of Ghazals was beautifully incorporated in his music by Khayyam. Ordinarily, one would think of Lata Mangeshkar's name when it came to Ghazals in Indian cinema. In this film, however, Muzaffar Ali and Khayyam experimented and chose Asha Bhosle. "Asha Bhosle was completely involved since the beginning. I gave her the Umrao Jaan novel to read. She read and understood the character. She completely went into that zone," remembers Muzaffar Ali.
The timeless songs like In aankhon ki masti ke, Zindagi jab bhi teri bazm mein, Justuju jiski thi and Y eh kya jagah hai doston were penned by Shahryar, who was a professor in the acclaimed Aligarh Muslim University. He was an old acquaintance of Muzaffar Ali. His son, journalist Faridoon Shahryar, told me, "Abba's contribution was not only in the songs, but also in Umrao Jaan's dialogues, and the poetry used in the film. Even the couplets recited by the characters in the film were actually written by him. Abba had been teaching Ruswa's novel since years to his students. So the entire culture that was created in the film, Muzaffar sahib and my father were well aware of that culture."
The shooting
The film was primarily shot in Lucknow, the city of Nawabs, and its surrounding areas, including Malihabad and Faizabad, areas Ali knew intimately. They shot it for a year in two seasons in 1980. A set was also built in Mehboob Studio in Bombay (Mumbai), where a kotha was created with many original elements like antique doors and artefacts.
Everyone on the sets of Umrao Jaan had heard about Rekha's erratic behaviour while filming. She was said to be "difficult to work with" and "moody", but according to the late Farooq Sheikh, her conduct was a pleasant surprise. In an earlier interview, Farooq Sheikh had revealed how he, along with Rekha and Dina Pathak, had to take a train from Delhi to Lucknow for the shoot. It was a fourteen-hour overnight journey in winter. They had been promised bedding and breakfast, but once the train started, they realised that the man in charge of production had forgotten to load the bedding. "Dinaji had a shawl, but Rekha ji had only a dupatta to ward off the biting cold. It was freezing, and forget about sleeping, we couldn't even sit without our teeth chattering. Yet, not a word of complaint passed through Rekha ji's lips," he recalled.
Muzaffar Ali's face still lights up with a smile as he reminisces on the film's shooting. The entire unit moved from Mumbai to Lucknow for the shooting. "Rekha was a big star. So, how would she disembark the train and go to the car? It would've been difficult to control the crowds at the station. I would tell her to walk exactly behind me. My height is such that if she walks exactly behind me, no one would be able to see her." Entire Lucknow was abuzz with the news of Rekha shooting there.
Muzaffar Ali teamed up with his then-wife, Subhashin,i who crafted Umrao Jaan's costumes with obsessive care. They sifted through family heirlooms and studied 1850s weaving, dyes, and crafts, ensuring every detail felt authentic, never modern. Subhashini also sought help from actress Jennifer Kendell-Kapoor since she had recently wrapped up work on her husband's home production, Junoon, as well as received helpful inputs from Umrao Jaan's co-writer, theatre personality, art-director and scholar Shama Zaidi.
But Rekha and Muzaffar also had their share of conflict on certain aspects of the film. "A film is made at many levels. On the level of music, the level of lifestyle, of clothing. We faced many difficulties on the level of clothing. She carried a whole tribe of people for make-up and costume, and I did not like this," said Muzaffar. Rekha was very conscious about her clothes and look. Before each scene, her costume team would present options in front of Muzaffar, all of which would be shot down. This was the cause of a daily argument. "They wanted to turn Rekha into a Bollywood doll. But our character was not only Umrao Jaan. It was also Lucknow, and its culture. Her designer would always be standing with costumes on a hanger. That was a very big issue. I was adamant that this was not Lucknow, that she had taken the character elsewhere. They were occupied with making it Muqaddar Ka Sikandar," Muzaffar Ali laughed.
As shooting progressed, the conflicts abated. Rekha realised that the film and her character's trajectory were different from all her earlier films. There would be creative discussions and critical engagement on the sets. Rekha shared her thoughts on scenes and tried to infuse the pathos of her own life into Umrao's character. "She had realised that if she didn't listen to what we were trying to do with her, she would end up in a disaster zone," says Muzaffar. He started involving Rekha in analyses of dialogues and music. They had regular discussions on Umrao's character and on the delicate nuances of Urdu. Rekha meticulously honed her Urdu, the rhythm and intonation. "She went into that zone. It was a different world [of] Urdu, shayari (poetry), tehzeeb (culture); a huge challenge for a person from South India. In a way, it was a total transformation for Rekha."
The highlight of Umrao Jaan was the mujra or courtesan dance. For the choreography, director Muzaffar Ali had hired the legendary Kathak dance guru, Gopi Krishna, who choreographed the magnum opus Mughal-E-Azam (1960), and Kumudini Lakhia, a pioneer of contemporary Kathak.
According to Muzaffar, "Rekha was comfortable with both [choreographers], but Gopi Krishna's moves came naturally to her since he was more commercial. Kumudini had nothing to do with Bollywood and brought a certain realism into the dances." Watching the film, it is surprising to note that Rekha has no formal training in Kathak, the backbone of the movie. The courtesans of that era were all trained Kathak dancers, and according to Muzaffar, Rekha, though untrained, had the body language and "bhav" of a Kathak dancer. Rekha had revealed in an interview, "Muzaffar Ali had also invited many nawabs of the bygone era, who were acquainted with the mujras. These nawabs were exclusively called to closely monitor my Kathak steps, and many a time they guided me and came up with valuable suggestions, thus making my dance stand out.
The most ambitious sequence of the film was the climactic mujra- Ye kya jagah hai doston, describing Umrao's sheer hopelessness and disillusionment when she realises she will never be free of the exigencies of a courtesan's life. Had-e-nigah tak jahaan ghubaar he ghubaar hai. While researching Rekha: The Untold Story, I sensed that perhaps the same loneliness had quietly shadowed her life all along.
Justuju jiski thi usko toh na paya humne
The making of Umrao Jaan was also a time when headlines buzzed with reports of Rekha's alleged association with superstar Amitabh Bachchan.
While making the film, Muzaffar Ali got a close peek into Rekha's life. I asked him how he would express Rekha's personality. He answered with a smile, "The song, 'justuju jiski thi usko toh na paya humne' - it
completely fits Rekha. She 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. She is and she was in love with him." Muzaffar Ali added that Rekha channelled her personal emotions and pain while playing the role: "I think Rekha became more than what I had expected of Umrao. She rose beyond the script."
Despite financial and personal struggles, the shooting was finally over. Rekha was known for her rapid pace of dubbing in the industry. She would usually finish an entire film's dubbing in a mere three or four hours. But Umrao Jaan's formidable Urdu was a challenge even for her. Muzaffar shares, "Rekha said that she'll dub it in six hours, but I wanted to get each word right, each breath right. It was not easy to dub it. She got nervous about what was happening. Dubbing went on for a week; it took us thirty-six hours, but see her dialogue delivery in the film."
In her autobiography, Zikr: In the Light and Shade of Tim e, Muzaffar Ali writes, "Rekha took her role to another level, working with Shaukat Kaifi as Khanum Jaan, who opened the world of the courtesan to Dina Pathak as Bua Husaini, who gave Umrao motherly comfort. The veteran Jagirdar, as Maulvi Sahab, opened a spiritual world for her, while Naseeruddin Shah, as Gowher Mirza, introduced her to the sensual world. Farouque Shaikh was her world of love, and Raj Babbar, as dacoit Faiz Ali, her spirit of adventure. But finally, it was her own mother in the film, Farrukh Jafar, who helped her tear into the hearts of people like a searing hot blade, leaving them scarred forever.
The film won four National Awards: Rekha for Best Actress, Manzur for Art Direction, Khayyam for Music, and Asha Bhosle for Playback Singing. Especially given its modest budget and offbeat subject, the film performed reasonably well at the box office. An attempt to recreate the magic came with a remake by director J.P. Dutta in 2006. Featuring the stunning Aishwarya Rai in the lead, the film proved to be a resounding flop.
More than three decades later, the image of Rekha's Umrao Jaan still lingers. Her helplessness and disillusionment, quiet longing and the emptiness in her eyes, trapped by the loveless fate of a tawaif. Umrao and Rekha seemed to blur into one, feeding into each other until they became inseparable.
Today, in popular memory, Umrao Jaan is Rekha.