Anju Mahendroo remembers Rajesh Khanna on his birth anniversary, shares unseen photo: ‘Love and miss you loads’

Anju, in a 1973 interview with Stardust spoke about how Rajesh was exhilarated when he saw the effect he had on women and expected the same from her. “He wanted me to fuss over him like all those others who are perpetually falling at his feet. I loved him. I couldn’t fawn over him. To me, he was Jatin or Justin. A man I loved, not Rajesh Khanna, Superstar or The Phenomenon,” she was quoted as saying in Yasser Usman’s book Rajesh Khanna: The Untold Story of India’s First Superstar.

Anju had appeared in a few movies but Rajesh was a huge star at the time. He wanted her to give up on modelling, which she did. “As much as I could, I had submerged my individuality, my personality, my identity into his – to make him happy. He wanted me to give up modelling at a time when I was paid very highly. I did,” she said.

Although the two never married, Anju was a prominent part of Rajesh’s life until he passed away in 2012.