Prateek Tanmay
3 min readNew DelhiJul 3, 2026 01:14 PM IST
Veteran actor Rekha had a difficult childhood and started working at a very early age in the movies. When Rekha was in her teens, her mother brought her to Mumbai (then Bombay), and she started struggling in the city in the hopes of getting an opportunity that would change her life. It was at this time that Rekha met actor Sanjay Khan, who was one of the most popular actors of that era, and Sanjay refused to get a photo shoot with her, until his wife Zarine intervened.
Sanjay Khan ‘launched’ Rekha
In a recent chat with Vickey Lalwani on his YouTube channel, Sanjay’s daughter Farah Khan Ali shared that Rekha recently visited their home and recalled the incident. “My father launched Rekha,” she said and recalled the anecdote shared by Rekha.
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“Rekha came to the house recently, when my mum died. She was saying that the only reason I am in movies is because of your mother,” she shared and added that Sanjay had initially refused to get a photoshoot with Rekha because he did not find her attractive.
‘I was very plump, not attractive’
“Rekha said, ‘Because when I first came, I was very plump and I wasn’t very attractive, and your father did not want to do a photo shoot with me. Your mother, Zarine, kept saying, ‘Look at this girl, look at her beautiful eyes and her lovely mouth, please do a photo shoot with her.’ So your father very grudgingly agreed to do the photo shoot with me and when the pictures came, he said, ‘Okay she looks good. We will do the picture’. That’s how I entered the film industry’,” Farah shared.
Rekha’s film with Sanjay Khan was the 1971 film Haseenon Ka Devata. The film also starred Bindu and Helen. This was Rekha’s second Hindi release after 1970’s Sawan Bhadon.
Sanjay Khan also launched Parveen Babi
In the same chat, Farah also spoke about Parveen Babi and shared that her father launched her as well. One of Parveen’s earliest films was Trimurti, which starred Sanjay. When asked if she was in touch with Parveen while she was struggling with her mental health, Farah said, “Yes, I was in touch with her, my parents were. I met her a few years before she passed. We were very close because… She was someone I had childhood memories with and she was very loving and very kind. My father is close to Kabir Bedi as well. And Pooja Bedi, of course, is one of my closest friends now.”
