Rekha was not on good terms with Amitabh Bachchan, reveals Ranjeet: 'She had a lot of tantrums, I asked her to...'

Rekha was one of the highest-paid actresses in the Hindi film industry in the 1970s and 1980s. However, the actress had a lot of tantrums too, as claimed by Ranjeet. The veteran actor, who famously played villain in several Bollywood films, has shared that he signed Rekha for one of his films but then asked her to return the signing amount as he couln't tolerate her tantrums.

In a recent interview, Ranjeet shared that he wanted to make his own films after he wasn't happy with the offers he was getting. Talking to Vickey Lalwani, he said, "I didn’t sign films for almost a decade. I used to get frustrated. When I started to make films, irrespective of the bond I shared with the actors, I would pay them for their work. Although they used to hesitate to take money from me, I would insist. Similarly, I told Rekha too, that you are my friend and everything but if I am signing you for a film, I want you to quote me an amount and I will pay you and she did. Later, I realised that someone else who also signed her for one of their films were paying her Rs 5 lakh less than what she had quoted to me."

Ranjeet further added, "I knew she would make producers line up outside her house and wouldn’t meet them. When I was narrating the story to her, I had my whole team waiting outside, she didn’t let them in. I talked to her about it, but she said, ‘let them all wait outside’. Only Farzana would go take messages from them and convey it to her, she wouldn’t meet anybody."

The actor and filmmaker stated that problems began when Rekha refused to shoot in the evenings as he recalled, "She was doing a film at this time so she told me we will do day for night shoot. I brutally told her, I am making this film for me and not you. I realised that she would soon treat me like the other producers. So, before she could get to that point, I politely asked her to return my signing amount. I said, ‘Rekha, please return me my money, I can’t make this picture with you.’ It all happened on a friendly note."

"The reason was that she was not on good terms with Amitabh Bachchan, later they got back to being friends. Then she wanted to stay back in Mumbai. But I wanted to shoot at the farm, which was out of Bombay. She wanted to return home in the evenings, but my songs were scheduled for evenings. She said, ‘let’s shoot this at day, I want to return home at night’. She also had issues with choreographer, she said she was not comfortable with him. We changed that too. She had a lot of tantrums", Ranjeet concluded.

Ranjeet directed two films Kaarnama in 1990 and Ghazab Tamasha in 1992. While Karnaama starred Vinod Khanna, Kimi Katkar, Amrish Puri, Nirupa Roy, and Neena Gupta; Ghazab Tamasha, which he also produced, featured the Aashiqui trio Rahul Roy, Anu Aggarwal, and Deepak Tijori in the leading roles.