Amitabh Bachchan initially teased Jaya Bachchan to inquire about Rekha, but he couldn’t handle it and scolded her instead.
Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan have been happily married for fifty years. However, when Rekha entered Big B’s life, their once rock-solid friendship saw some turmoil and instability. In tabloids and interviews, there is a ghost story about an enduring famous couple where she confesses her love for him but Mr. Bachchan never acknowledges it in public.
Even Yash Chopra once referred to Jaya as his wife and Rekha as the actor from Piku’s Lover in an interview. However, the actor himself has never confirmed this spectral account of his liaison. Even still, there are eyewitnesses to this story and its consequences, and one of them was a well-known journalist.
Amitabh Bachchan is said to have intimated during one of the journalist Karan Thapar’s interviews with him to make the questions spicy by bringing up his love life, according to Thapar’s book. All hell broke loose when Thapar dug him for Rekha, but Jaya Bachchan was the unfortunate victim. You read that right, you did.
Karan Thapar described the 50-minute interview that was scheduled to commemorate the Silsila actor’s 50th birthday in his book Devil’s Advocate: The Untold Story. The Shehenshah of Hindi cinema and his better half were both featured in the video interview. The American actor Warren Beatty’s unaffected interview from 1992, which was going viral at the time, was addressed by the actor during a break. Mr. Bachchan added that the interviewer’s queries on Beatty’s love life, which he personally responded to, were what made it so popular with the viewers.
Thapar wasn’t sure if he needed to take this as a cue to interrogate Amitabh Bachchan about his love life as well, but he seized the chance and continued to probe him about his alleged liaisons with Parveen Babi and Rekha. Both were categorically refuted by The Angry Young Man of Indian Cinema. However, none could have predicted what transpired next. The interview then turned to Jaya Bachchan, who was seated next to the interviewer. “Do you believe him?” “I always believe my husband,” she said. She was further grilled, “Do you really mean that, or are you only saying it because he’s sitting beside you?” She paused, looked at her husband, and replied with her infectious smile, “Of course I mean it. Why should I not?”
One of the most adored leading men in Indian cinema was erupting within like a volcano as the team waited to have dinner with the Bachchans after the interview. But the only one who had to deal with it was Jaya Bachchan. It all began when she suggested eating some rice to her spouse!
Amitabh Bachchan snapped, “You know I never eat rice. Why are you offering me something I never have?” Jaya Bachchan trying to calm him down said, “I’m only offering you rice because, as yet, the rotis haven’t come.” And then came the lava bursting and Bachchan shouting, “I don’t want rice! I never have rice and you know that. I’m not complaining that the rotis haven’t come, but stop offering me rice instead.”
Jaya still tried to manage the embarrassment and said, “I’ll just check what’s happened to the rotis. Why don’t you have a little rice in the meantime?” But Bachchan was untamed and unpolished by that time. He retorted, ““Stop it. Just stop it. I’ve said I don’t want rice and I’m happy to wait for the rotis. Can’t you understand that? What’s the matter with you? Why can’t you just listen to what I’m saying?”
When Jaya Bachchan went to the kitchen to look for rotis, she never came back. Despite this, the pair handled these challenging times with fortitude and wisdom, and they are still going strong as they mark 50 years after getting married. I hope they have many more happy years together!
