Actor Moushumi Chatterjee was one of the promising, and highest-paid actors in the 1970s in Hindi cinema. In a recent conversation with Filmfare, Moushumi spoke about her rivalry with Rekha and the latter’s perception that she controlled Vinod Mehra’s life.
When Rekha expressed her jealousy
The actor said when asked about her rapport with her contemporaries, “Rekha used to think I’m controlling Vinod Mehra’s life. Because she is sitting in his house, and (Vinod’s) mother used to tell me, ‘Indu, Vinod ki cupboard mein se envelope nikal do’ (Indu, bring the envelope from Vinod’s cupboard). So naturally, she used to not like it and I used tell his mother why do you ask me, she is sitting there, you go and take it and then she used to say I don’t care. I was the victim. Somehow she used to feel Vinod used to listen to me more than anybody else.”
She recalled that Rekha used to make faces seeing her and when she confronted her it made the latter nervous.
When Rekha tried to steal Moushumi’s role
Moushumi shared an instance from Prem Bandhan, when Ramanand Sagar asked her to take off her heels to align with the height of her co-star Rekha, who was seemingly barefoot. Nonetheless, Moushumi refrained and stated that she was an educated and affluent woman who sticks to her principles.
Moushumi then stated an incident when Rekha tried to steal her role in Daasi, “She got fed up playing the second woman. She insisted to Raj Khosla, ‘Give me the role of Dassi, I should be Sanjeev Kumar’s wife. Let her do this one.’ I remember all his assistants, Sagar and others, they were laughing. He was a little high when she made that request, so he just said, ‘Mereko poora story change karna padega’ (I’ll have to change the entire story). Which angle does Moushumi looks Tara bai?”
