India’s first superstar
Rajesh Khanna
was said to be madly in love with
Anju Mahendroo
, but the duo never ended up getting married. They reportedly dated for seven years, but Rajesh Khanna went on to marry
Dimple Kapadia
in 1973.
It was also reported that Anju quit films on Rajesh Khanna’s behest. Yasser Usman’s book, Rajesh Khanna: The Untold Story of India’s First Superstar, quotes a 1973 interview from Stardust wherein Anju had said, “He wanted me to fuss over him like all those others who are perpetually falling at his feet.
I loved him. I couldn’t fawn over him. To me, he was Jatin or Justin. A man I loved, not Rajesh Khanna, Superstar or The Phenomenon.”
Expressing that she gave up her own identity to make Rajesh Khanna happy, Anju added, “As much as I could, I had submerged my individuality, my personality, my identity into his – to make him happy. He wanted me to give up modelling at a time when I was paid very highly. I did.”
Despite their shocking break up, Anju was back in the superstar’s life in his final years. After Rajesh Khanna’s demise in 2012, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt had told TOI, “After I learnt of Khanna’s death through the media, I thought of Anju because I knew she would be affected by his death. I managed to reach her late at night and learnt that Khanna and Anju had got together in the last years of his life. She used to take care of his medical needs and even accompanied him to hospital. Holding back her tears, she told me, ‘My only consolation is that I was holding his hand when he took his last breath.”
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