India’s first celebrity, Rajesh Khanna, and actress Anju Mahendru shared some of the talked-about relationships in Bollywood historical past. They’d a high-profile relationship lasting seven years within the late Nineteen Sixties and early Nineteen Seventies earlier than breaking apart attributable to Rajesh’s possessiveness and their clashing life objectives. Whereas Rajesh went on to marry Dimple Kapadia, his bond with Anju remained etched in time. Regardless of a bitter breakup that stored them aside for 17 years, destiny introduced Anju again into his life. She was by his aspect when he took his final breath in 2012.
The contradictions of their relationship
In a 1987 Display screen journal article that includes Rajesh Khanna alongside Dimple Kapadia, Anju Mahendru, and Tina Munim, Anju opened up in regards to the complexities of her relationship with the celebrity. She described Rajesh as an orthodox man who paradoxically fell for ultra-modern ladies. His expectations typically clashed along with her character and life-style decisions.Anju recalled, “I do know it’s a contradiction, however then Rajesh Khanna is like that. Confusion was part of our relationship. If I wore a skirt, he’d snap, why don’t you put on a saree? If I wore a saree, he’d wrinkle his nostril and say, why are you making an attempt to venture a Bhartiya nari look?”
A lady unshaken by superstardom
Not like many round him, Anju was by no means dazzled by Rajesh Khanna’s stardom. She remained blunt and outspoken, by no means shying away from expressing her opinions—even when it bruised his ego. Recalling their dynamic, she as soon as mentioned, “I used to be essential as a result of that’s how I’m. If he was dangerous, I all the time mentioned so. Why ought to I’ve praised him simply to maintain him completely happy? There have been a lot round to spice up his ego. He has all the time been delicate to criticism and I’ve all the time been very frank.”Rajesh Khanna and Anju Mahendru’s story might not have had a cheerful ending, however it stays certainly one of Bollywood’s most intriguing chapters.