Bhanurekha was born in the Tamil-speaking Ganesan household on October
10, 1954. Her dad was the popular Tamil actor, Gemini, while her mom
was a popular Telugu actress, Pushpavalli. She has seven sisters and
one brother. One of her sisters is Dr. Kamala Selvaraj, while another
one, Radha, lives in San Francisco with a son named Naveed, who is
being readied to act in Bollywood movies.
No stranger to the tinsel screen, Bhanurekha acted in a Telugu movie
'Rangula Ratnam' as Baby Bhanurekha along with her mom during 1966,
which was subsequently re-made and released in Hindi during 1976 as
Rangila Ratan (1976). She acted in
one more Telugu as well as one Kannada movie (Amma Kosam and Goadalli
CID 999 respectively) before re-locating to Bombay.
Due to her background, she ended up being very gloomy and pessimistic
during her early years. She get a chance to debut in Bollywood movies
during 1970 with Sawan Bhadon (1970)
opposite Navin Nischol with a screen name
of Rekha. Inability to speak Hindi, a dusky complexion as well as her
weight did not exactly add to her assets in a predominantly
fair-skinned, Hindi-speaking North-Indian film industry.
She decided to take matters seriously, took Yoga, shed those extra
pounds, learned Hindi and dancing, and thus was born a new and much
improved Rekha - who went on to deliver one box office hit after
another for example Nagin (1976),
Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978),
Mr. Natwarlal (1979),
Khubsoorat (1980),
Umrao Jaan (1981),
Khoon Bhari Maang (1988)
amongst others. In her later years she has taken up character roles and
appeared as a mother, even a grandmother in
Krrish (2006).
Her slim, slender looks got her many admirers, including well
established Bollywood actors such as
Kiran Kumar ,
Jeetendra,
Vinod Mehra, and
Amitabh Bachchan'. In 2004, in a television interview with Simi Garewal, she rejected a long-standing rumor that she was once married to Vinod Mehra. She referred to him as a well-wisher and stated that her only marriage was to a businessman,
Mukesh Aggarwal. This marriage ended when Mukesh
killing himself shortly thereafter, leaving her a widow. She has never remarried.
She likes to surf the Internet, has written biographies of actresses
like Zeenat Aman, and
Salma Agha on IMDb, likes to collect old
photographs and postcards, mimic people, watch movies, and practices
Yoga regularly, read comics like Archie and Dennie the Menace, and is a
vegetarian. She now lives with her Secretary, Farzana, and pets in a
self-owned bungalow in Bandra (West)in Mumbai.
