‘Rekha was called fat, dark-skinned when she came to Bollywood,’ recalls Kabir Bedi: ‘Ugly duckling became a white swan’

“She started her career amidst a lot of difficulty. When she came to Mumbai, she was called ‘fat’, ‘dark skinned actress’. People said what will she be even able to do here in the industry? But this ugly duckling became a white swan,” he said in an interview with Bollywood Bubble.

Kabir said despite the labelling and body shaming, Rekha kept delivering acclaimed performances, cementing her position as one of the biggest stars of the era, and by the time she headlined Khoon Bhari Maang in 1988, she was a force to be reckoned with. Six years before the revenge-drama, Rekha had bagged her maiden National Award for Umrao Jaan.

“She gave fantastic performances one after the other. By the time we did Khoon Bhari Maang, she was the queen. After that she won the best actor Filmfare award for the film. I have immense respect for her.

“We would live in the same building–she was living on the floor below mine–so we would often bump into each other. People would say, ‘This new actor has come from the South,’ and I liked her from the beginning. The career she went on to build, hats off to her,” he added.

In a 1985 interview with Simi Garewal, Rekha had said that beauty is both internal and external, adding that being “fat is ugly.” When asked if she had any advice for young women who might look up to her, Rekha had said, “To be beautiful. To be a complete beautiful woman, you have to be physically fit. If you can manage to be slim, fine. Definitely not fat. Fat is ugly.”