On her 67th birthday, we take a look at what Rekha said about her difficult childhood and her father, of whom she has no memory as he left her and her mother when she was just a baby

The yesteryear diva Rekha has had an illustrious journey in Indian cinema. She debuted as a teenager with the film Anjana Safar and until now she has acted in 180 films. Today, the actor has much-deserved fame, respect in the film industry and the love of her many fans. But her beginnings were not as smooth. She had a troubled childhood and had to enter a profession she never desired to get into. Rekha, one of the finest leading ladies of Bollywood, got into the acting business not because she wanted to become an actor, but because the financial condition of her family was not good after her father abandoned them.

On her 67th birthday, we take a look at what the Umrao Jaan of Bollywood said about her difficult childhood and her father, of whom she has no memory as he left her and her mother when she was just a baby.

Rekha, who is now dubbed an enigma, was born as Bhanurekha to Tamil superstar, Gemini Ganesan and Telugu actor Pushpavalli. She was a very shy and a loner. Despite having to grow up without a father and having to drop out of school to support the education of her siblings, Rekha described her ‘little’ childhood as “wonderful” to actor-anchor Simi Garewal on her show Rendezvous with Simi Garewal

When Garewal asked Rekha how was the relationship between her parents, the actor replied, “It was a romantic relationship, and anything filled with romance is not easy.” When asked what does she remember of her father, she said, “I was a baby when he moved out of our lives. I don’t even remember the time when he was at home.” But the actor never got the impression that her family was dysfunctional. Instead, she heard interesting stories about her father from her mother, who was “dizzy and drunk in the love of my father.”

Though Rekha has no memory of Gemini Ganesan as a father, she remembers the superstar as a ‘fabulous’ lover both on and off-screen. “He was a fabulous lover of my mother or a fabulous lover on screen, I was totally fascinated watching him on the screen,” Rekha told Garewal.