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‘Sharmila Tagore and I were never friendly’: Mumtaz admits she didn’t enquire about Saif Ali Khan’s well-being after attack, says, ‘I call nobody’

Mumtaz opened up on the competition between her and Sharmila Tagore, and also spoke about their rivalry over starring opposite the late superstar Rajesh Khanna in films.

Rajesh Khanna worked frequently with both Mumtaz and Sharmila Tagore.

Mumtaz talked about rivalry with Sharmila Tagore and claimed she has delivered more hits with rajesh Khanna. (Pic: Express Archive)

Many know about the rivalry between veteran actors Mumtaz and Sharmila Tagore when they were at the top of their careers. In a recent interaction, Mumtaz recalled the competition between the two and also opened up about their contention to star alongside the late superstar Rajesh Khanna in films.

In an interview with Vickey Lalwani, Mumtaz was quizzed about the truth behind her rivalry with Sharmila Tagore. She responded, saying, “Rivalry for what? I had nothing to do with Sharmila Tagore. She has among the top actors and so was I.” However, Mumtaz did swiftly put across the point that she won more awards than Sharmila, saying, “On the contrary, I think I have won more awards than what she had ever won. I got more awards. She and I both were beautiful, so why would I be jealous of her? I was never jealous of her, I don’t know why people think that.”

Mumtaz also opened up about whether she reached out to Sharmila when her son, actor Saif Ali Khan, suffered a brutal knife attack earlier this year. She said, “No, I didn’t call her. I call nobody. So many people died, I didn’t call anybody. Also, I live in London and travel to Kenya, Uganda, wherever my husband goes. I come to Mumbai only once in 6 months because I was born and brought up here and I love India. I am what I am because of the love I got from Indians.”

Mumtaz further shared that since she and Sharmila were never close, she didn’t feel the need to inquire about Saif’s well-being. “I was never close to her. I was not friendly with her and neither was she. She had her own set of friends and I had mine,” she said. For the unversed, Saif was brutally attacked by an intruder at his Mumbai house in January. The went through two surgeries after the knife attack.

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When asked about their common link — Rajesh Khanna — and the number of hit films delivered with him, Mumtaz replied, “Mine and Rajesh Khanna’s stars matched, that’s why we starred in so many films together.” When it was pointed out that Sharmila also delivered hit films with him, Mumtaz responded, “How many films did she do with him and how many I did? Please count. She hardly did films with Rajesh Khanna. I did at least 10-15 films with him and all hits, none of them were flops. All our songs were hit. Me and Rajesh Khanna became friends. He wasn’t friendly with every heroine, but he would get on with Sharmila ji also.”

Talking more about her equation with Rajesh Khanna, she said, “Me and Rajesh ji developed a chemistry and we would practice songs before the shoot. We were very close because we worked a lot together. I think I was the closest to Kaka. I was also close to Dharmendra. He is a good human. I used to get on with all my hero.”

However, Mumtaz dismissed the notion that Sharmila was ever jealous of her closeness with Rajesh Khanna. She pointed out that Sharmila was married at the time and had ‘beautiful kids.’ She also admitted that Sharmila would always speak to her nicely whenever they met.

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