Early roles (1968–1970) In late 1968, the
Nairobi-based businessman Kuljeet Pal visited
Gemini Studios in search of a newcomer for his new project
Anjana Safar (an adaption of
H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel ''
King Solomon's Mines''). He spotted Rekha at the studio and cast her as the film's second female lead after
Vanisri. Pal went to Pushpavalli's house to give Rekha a screen test, dictating a number of sentences in Hindi, which were rewrote by Rekha in
Latin script, and then told her to memorize it. A few moments later, Rekha recited the sentences completely and Pal was impressed of her native Hindi-speaker-like voice. He gave her a five-year contract to star in four films from him and his brother Shatrujeet Pal each. Rekha moved to
Bombay (present-day Mumbai) in 1969 and rented a room at the Hotel Ajanta in the city's neighbourhood
Juhu, with Pal paying off the fee. Also that year, she announced her debut to public and the media, and the successful
Kannada film
Operation Jackpot Nalli C.I.D 999 with
Dr. Rajkumar, where she features as a lead for the first time, was released. In
Anjana Safar, directed by
Raja Nawathe, she played Sunita, a woman forced by her father to travel to Africa in search of a hidden treasure. She was paid for her work. Since her mother fell ill at the time, Rekha was accompanied by her aunt to the shooting, which started in August that year at
Mehboob Studio. A controversy arose around a kissing scene featuring Rekha and male lead
Biswajit Chatterjee, of which she was not notified as Nawathe wanted to maintain her natural reaction. In later years, Rekha complained at having been tricked into the scene. The film ran into censorship problems and would not be released until 1979, when it was retitled
Do Shikaari. The kissing scene made it to the cover of the Asian edition of
Life magazine in April 1970. This prompted the American journalist James Shephard to travel to India to interview Rekha, which she saw as an opportunity to boost her career and express her complaint.
Do Shikaari underperformed at the box office. Soon after her move to Bombay in 1969, Rekha was signed by the producer and director Mohan Sehgal for his film,
Sawan Bhadon, and the filming started on 11 October. He cast her as Chanda, a village girl who does not receive approval from her parents to marry her lover (
Navin Nischol). Although her hair was already long and thick, Sehgal forced her to wear a
wig. Hence, it did not fit on her hair and her hairdressers had to shave her hair to almost bald. She was not fluent in Hindi at the time and most of the film's crew mocked her for having South Indian background. Marking her Hindi debut,
Sawan Bhadon was released in September 1970 and became a commercial success. Film reviewers scorned her looks, but complimented her confidence and comic timing in the film.
Manoj Das believed that "embarrassment" was shown on Nischol's face in every scenes with Rekha, and
Film World magazine noted the film's success was a breakthrough for her career.
Amma Kosam, a Telugu drama from the director
Kolli Pratyagatma, was released in the end of the year, and she dedicated it to her mother.
Career fluctuations in the 1970s (1971–1977) Rekha subsequently got several offers but nothing of substance, as her roles were mostly just of a glamour girl. She was highly prolific during the decade, working on average in ten films a year, most of which were deemed potboilers and failed to propel her career forward in terms of roles and appreciation. She appeared in several commercially successful films at the time, including
Raampur Ka Lakshman (1972),
Kahani Kismat Ki (1973), and
Pran Jaye Par Vachan Na Jaye (1974), yet she was not regarded for her acting abilities and—according to the author
Tejaswini Ganti—"the industry was surprised by her success as her dark complexion, plump figure, and garish clothing contradicted the norms of beauty prevalent in the film industry and in society."
Randhir Kapoor's
Dharam Karam is a drama about a
hoodlum, and
Link magazine noted that Rekha's part in it is the most pathetic of the entire cast. The mafia film
Dharmatma was her only financial success of the year. Directed by and starring
Feroz Khan, the film saw her in the part of Anu, Khan's childhood sweetheart. Additional films include
Kabeela, about her appearance in which critic Gautam Kundu wrote that she "manages to be as undistinguished as the script will allow, which is plenty". Rekha recalls that the way she was perceived at that time motivated her to change her appearance and improve her choice of roles: "I was called the [ugly duckling] of Hindi films because of my dark complexion and South Indian features. I used to feel deeply hurt when people compared me with the leading heroines of the time and said I was no match for them. I was determined to make it big on sheer merit." The mid-1970s marked the beginning of her physical transformation. She started paying attention to her make-up, dress sense, and worked to improve her acting technique and perfect her Hindi-language skills for three months. To lose weight, she followed a nutritious diet, led a regular, disciplined life, and practised yoga, later recording albums to promote physical fitness. According to
Khalid Mohamed, "The audience was floored when there was a swift change in her screen personality, as well as her style of acting." Rekha began choosing her film roles with more care. it would be her first of many appearances with the actor. In the same year, she starred in the comedy-drama
Aap Ki Khatir, opposite
Vinod Khanna and
Nadira. Her role as the poor girl won her awards from a number of film journalists' associations. In a retrospective review for
The Hindu, the sport journalist and film critic
Vijay Lokapally presumed that Rekha's role was challenging for her and appreciated her chemistry with Khanna; a
Link reviewer praised its social themes.
Film World awarded her with the Best Actress trophy for her work in
Immaan Dharam, an action film that received mixed critical reviews. It features her as Durga, a Tamilian labourer who falls for the thief Mohan Kumar-Saxena (
Shashi Kapoor).
Cine Blitz praised Rekha for proving her talent in acting.
Turning point, stardom, and parallel cinema (1978–1984) Rekha's turning point came in 1978, with her portrayal of a rape victim in the social drama
Ghar. She plays Aarti, a newly married woman who gets gravely traumatized after being gang-raped. The film follows her character's struggle and traumatised with the help of her husband (
Vinod Mehra). The film was considered her first notable milestone, and her performance was acclaimed by both critics and audiences.
Dinesh Raheja elaborated, "
Ghar heralded the arrival of a mature Rekha. Her archetypal jubilance was replaced by her very realistic portrayal..." The film opened to a positive critical reception, and Rekha's brief role as a
tawaif named Zohrabai earned her a
Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Filmfare. M. L. Dhawan of
The Tribune noted her "smouldering intensity". Following
Do Anjaane, speculation about a love affair with her co-star Amitabh Bachchan generated.
Suhaag, like
Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, featured her as a courtesan and became the year's highest-grossing picture. The next two years were even more successful. In 1980, Rekha starred in the comedy
Khubsoorat by
Hrishikesh Mukherjee. In a role written specially for her, she played Manju Dayal, a young vivacious woman who visits her recently married sister and tries to bring joy to the wide family, much to the dissatisfaction of the matriarch of the household. Rekha said she easily identified with the bubbly nature of her character, calling it "quite a bit me".
Khubsoorat, and Rekha's performance in it, were well received by reviewers, and the film was a financial success.
Maang Bharo Sajana and
Judaai, both directed by
T. Rama Rao, and
Saawan Kumar Tak's
Saajan Ki Saheli, brought her further critical attention that year. Rekha's alleged love affair speculation with Amitabh Bachchan culminated when they starred together in
Yash Chopra's romantic drama
Silsila. It was the most scandalous of their films together as it reflected the rumours by the press: Rekha played Bachchan's lover, while Bachchan's real-life wife
Jaya Bachchan played his wife. The film was filmed secretly during 1980–1981, with Chopra not allowing the media to visit the shooting.
Silsila was regarded by many journalists as "a casting coup", and this was the last collaboration between Rekha and Bachchan. The film premiered in July 1981 to critical and commercial failure, and Chopra attributed this to the casting, feeling the audience's attention was strictly focused on the speculation rather than the plot.
India Today Sunil Sethi saw that Rekha was "as synthetic as [Amitabh Bachchan's] tiresome chauvinism". both box-office successes. She received another Filmfare Best Actress nomination for
Jeevan Dhaara (1982), in which she played a young unmarried woman who is the sole breadwinner of her extended family. During this period, Rekha was willing to expand her range beyond what she was given in mainstream films and started working in
parallel cinema, a movement of Indian neo-realist
art films. These films include
Kalyug (1981),
Umrao Jaan (1981),
Vijeta (1982),
Utsav (1984) and
Ijaazat (1987).
Umrao Jaan, a film adaptation of
Mirza Hadi Ruswa's
Urdu novel
Umrao Jaan Ada (1905), saw Rekha in the title role of the poet and
courtesan with a heart of gold from
Lucknow in the 1840s. Made on a lavish production cost, the film follows Umrao's life story from her childhood as a girl named Amiran who is kidnapped and sold in a brothel to her position years later as a popular courtesan who seeks happiness amid love affairs and other tribulations. In preparation for the part, Rekha, who at the beginning of her career did not speak Hindi, took the task of learning the finer nuances of the Urdu language. Rekha was widely applauded for her performance, which has since been cited as one of her best work. Balu Bharatan of
The Illustrated Weekly of India wrote of her "unexplored reserves of histronic strength". She was awarded the
National Film Award for Best Actress and earned another Filmfare Award nomination, with
Filmfare later considering this one of the most iconic performances of Bollywood history. She later claimed that the film was a turning point. Critic and author
Vijay Nair described her performance as "a masterful interpretation of the modern Draupadi".
Madhu Trehan complimented her for playing "flawlessly" the part of "a woman of intelligence, strength and a barely suppressed yearning for her young brother-in-law". The 1982
coming-of-age film Vijeta saw her as Neelima who struggles through her marital problems and tries to support her adolescent son, who, undecided about his future plans, eventually decides to join the Indian Air Force. She has since described the role as one of her favourite. The film attracted wide coverage for its sensuality and Rekha's intimate scenes; she took this as a way to compete with female newcomers at the time.
Utsav polarized both the audience and film reviewers with its script and direction; her work and costumes, however, were well received. A review in
Asiaweek noted Rekha "dressed in little more than glittering jewellery". In 2003,
Maithili Rao wrote, "Rekha—forever the first choice for the courtesan's role, be it ancient Hindu India or 19th-century Muslim Lucknow—is all statuesque sensuality..." In Gulzar's drama
Ijaazat, Rekha and
Naseeruddin Shah star as a divorced couple who meet unexpectedly for the first time after years of separation at a railway station, and recall together their life as a married couple and the conflicts which brought about their eventual split.
Setback and resurgence (1985–1989) Apart from parallel cinema, Rekha took on other increasingly adventurous roles. She was among the early actresses to play lead roles in heroine-oriented revenge films, the first of which was
Khoon Bhari Maang in 1988. Made by Rakesh Roshan specifically with Rekha in mind, the film featured her in the role Aarti Saxena, a wealthy, unassuming widow who narrowly survives an attempted murder by her scheming second husband and—presumed to be dead—returns to seek revenge under a concealed identity. She won her second
Filmfare Award for her performance in the film. Rekha went on to describe
Khoon Bhari Maang as "the first and only film I concentrated and understood all throughout." M.L. Dhawan from
The Tribune, while documenting the famous Hindi films of 1988, remarked that
Khoon Bhari Maang was "a crowning glory for Rekha, who rose like a phoenix ... and bedazzled the audience with her daredevilry."
Encyclopædia Britannicas
Encyclopædia of Hindi Cinema listed her role in the film as one of Hindi cinema's memorable female characters, noting it for changing "the perception of the ever-forgiving wife, turning her into an avenging angel." In a similar list by
Screen magazine, the role was included as one of "ten memorable roles that made the Hindi film heroine proud." In later interviews, Rekha has mentioned that receiving the Filmfare Award for this role was a surprise and a turning point that gave her reassurance and validation after taking a small break and getting eclipsed by younger stars. "All that applause from the film fraternity inspired me and made me realize that I am still wanted. I felt even more charged to give my best and knew right then, that this was my calling, what I was born to do, to make a difference in people's lives, through my performances."
Career fluctuations and short revival (1990–1999) The 1990s saw a drop in Rekha's success. Few of her films were successful and many of her roles were condemned by reviewers. Critics still noted, however, that unlike most of the actresses of her generation, like
Hema Malini and
Raakhee, who succumbed to playing character parts, typically of mothers and aunts, Rekha was still playing leading roles at a time when younger female stars rose to fame.
The Indian Express wrote that she "rides horses, wields swords and does justice to the title in being
phool (a flower) and becoming
angaarey (burning coal)". The public's acceptance of
Phool Bane Angaray and
Khoon Bhari Maang prompted several filmmakers to come with similar offers to Rekha, and she played such roles—labeled "avenging angels"—in several of her proceeding projects to a much less consequential effect. These included her next film
Insaaf Ki Devi (1992), and later films such as
Ab Insaf Hoga (1995) and
Udaan (1997), all of which were major duds. She followed with a dual role of twin sisters in
Shakti Samanta's
Geetanjali opposite
Jeetendra and the title role in the box-office disaster
Madam X, in which she starred as a young woman hired by the police to impersonate a female underworld don. Halfway through the decade, Rekha managed to halt her decline when she accepted several highly-controversial films, including
Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love and
Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi (1996).
Kama Sutra, a foreign production directed by
Mira Nair, was an erotic drama, and many felt her role of a
Kama Sutra teacher in the film would damage her career. She was undeterred by the criticism.
Todd McCarthy of
Variety described her as "exquisitely composed" in the part.
Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi, an action film directed by Umesh Mehra, was a major financial success, becoming one of the highest-grossing Indian films of the year. It featured Rekha in her first negative role as Madam Maya, a vicious gangster woman running a secret business of illegal wrestling matches in the US, who, during the course of the film, romances the much younger
Akshay Kumar. Her portrayal earned her several awards, including the
Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress and the
Star Screen Award for Best Villain. In spite of the positive response to her performance from both fans and critics, she maintained on more than one occasion that she did not like herself in the film, noting that her work was not up to her own, personal standards. Another controversial film at that time was
Aastha: In the Prison of Spring (1997), where
Basu Bhattacharya, making the last film of his career, cast her as a housewife who moonlights as a prostitute. Once again, she faced some scrutiny by sectors of the press and the audience for the nature of the part and for some of the explicit love scenes in the film. She later reacted: "...people had a lot to say about my role... I don't have problems playing anything. I've reached a stage where I could do justice to any role that came my way. It could be role of a mother, a sister-in-law; negative, positive, sensational or anything." Her performance earned her positive reviews and a
Star Screen Award nomination, with
India Today referring to her work as "her finest performance in years". She next acted in
Qila (1998) and
Mother (1999).
Recognition for character roles (2000–2006) In the 2000s, Rekha appeared in relatively few movies. She started the decade with
Bulandi, directed by
T. Rama Rao. The other was Khalid Muhammad's Zubeidaa, co starring Karisma Kapoor and Manoj Vajapayee playing the first wife Maharani Mandira Devi of the King. In 2001, Rekha appeared in
Rajkumar Santoshi's feminist drama
Lajja, an ensemble piece inspired by a true incident of a woman being raped in Bawanipur two years before. The film follows the journey of a runaway wife (
Manisha Koirala) and unfolds her story in three main chapters, each one presenting the story of a woman at whose place she stops. Rekha was the protagonist of the final chapter, around which the film's inspiration revolves, playing Ramdulari, an oppressed
Dalit village woman and social activist who becomes a victim of gangrape. Speaking of the film, Rekha commented, "I am Lajja and Lajja is me". Highly praised for her portrayal, she received several nominations for her work, including the
Filmfare Award and the
International Indian Film Academy Award (IIFA) for Best Supporting Actress.
Taran Adarsh wrote that "it is Rekha who walks away with the glory, delivering one of the finest performances the Indian screen has seen in the recent times." In
Rakesh Roshan's science-fiction film
Koi... Mil Gaya, Rekha played Sonia Mehra, a single mother to a
developmentally disabled young man, played by
Hrithik Roshan. The movie was a financial and critical success and became the most popular film of the year; it won the
Filmfare Award for Best Film, among others. Rekha received another Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Filmfare for her performance, which
Khalid Mohamed described as "astutely restrained". In 2005, Rekha guest starred in an item number in connection with the song "Kaisi Paheli Zindagani", in
Pradeep Sarkar's "
Parineeta". In
Bachke Rehna Re Baba (2005), Rekha played a con woman who, along with her niece, uses one scheme to rob men of their property. The film was a major critical failure.
Mid-Day remarked, "why Rekha chose to sign this film is a wonder," noting that she is "riddled with bad dialogue, terrible cakey makeup and tawdry styling". This was followed in 2006 by
Kudiyon Ka Hai Zamana, a poorly received sex comedy about four female friends and their personal troubles. In a scathing review, Indu Mirani noted that "Rekha hams like she was never going to do another film." In a 2007 article by
Daily News and Analysis, critic Deepa Gahlot directed an advice to Rekha: "Please pick movies with care, one more like
Bach Ke Rehna Re Baba and
Kudiyon Ka Hai Zamana and the diva status is under serious threat." In 2006, she reprised the role of Sonia Mehra in
Krrish,
Rakesh Roshan's sequel to
Koi... Mil Gaya. In this superhero feature, the story moves 20 years forward and focuses on the character of Sonia's grandson Krishna (played again by Hrithik Roshan), whom she has brought up single-handedly after the death of her son Rohit, and who turns out to have supernatural powers.
Krrish became the second-highest grossing picture of the year and, like its prequel, was declared a blockbuster. It received mostly positive notices from critics, and Rekha's work earned her another Filmfare nomination in the supporting category. Ronnie Scheib from
Variety noted her for bringing "depth to her role as the nurturing grandmother".
Occasional work; hiatus (2007–present) In 2007, she once again portrayed a courtesan in
Goutam Ghose's
Yatra. Unlike the initial success she experienced in playing such roles in the early stages of her career, this time the film failed to do well. In 2010, Rekha was awarded the
Padma Shri, the 4th highest civilian award given by the
Government of India. Rekha starred in the 2010 film
Sadiyaan alongside
Hema Malini and
Rishi Kapoor. The film marked the debut of
Shatrughan Sinha's son
Luv Sinha. The film failed to do well at the box office. In 2014, Rekha was working on
Abhishek Kapoor's
Fitoor, but left the film for unknown reasons and later
Tabu was signed as her replacement. In 2014 she also worked in
Super Nani released on Diwali (24 October). Super Nani was a family drama, in which the grandmother (Rekha) is unappreciated by her children and husband,
Randhir Kapoor. Her grandson,
Sharman Joshi convinces her to change. The grandmother 'transforms' herself into a glamorous model. In 2015, she appeared in R. Balki's
Shamitabh, playing herself. ==Personal life and off-screen work==