‘Rajesh Khanna fought with income tax officer over overdue tax amount of Rs 45 lakh,’ recalls Anita Advani: ‘He threatened to seal his bungalow’

Anita elaborated, “He (Rajesh Khanna) never used to see the documents and he didn’t know what income tax was. Whatever his team would tell him to give, he would give that amount. If he was asked to give one lakh, he would call his CA to ask ‘how many zeros showed I put.’ Then tax became overdue and he or his team did not pay attention to it. He didn’t even know that. He didn’t know anything about chartered accountancy, and suddenly, he was asked to pay Rs 45 lakh.”

Anita recalled Rajesh Khanna himself going to meet the income tax officer over the tax overdue notice. “Then he got into an argument with an income tax officer. He went to personally meet him. The officer threatened him that he will seal his house and also thwart the release of his film,” she said. However, Anita revealed that he eventually paid the amount and the home was never sealed.

In the same interaction, Anita Advani talked about how she secretly married Rajesh Khanna and why they never declared their marriage in public. “We got married privately, but in the film industry, no one talks about such things openly. Everyone says ‘we’re friends’ or ‘we’re in a relationship’ or something else. But it was already reported in the media that I was with him, so neither of us felt the need to go and publicly announce that we were married. We never felt that need.”