Rekha is one of the finest actresses in Indian cinema. She has starred in more than 180 films and has received several accolades, including one National Film Award and three Filmfare Awards. She has often played strong and complicated female characters—from fictional to literary—in mainstream and independent films.

Today, we share some lesser-known facts about Rekha.

1: Rekha was born out of wedlock to Tamil superstar Gemini Ganesan and Telugu actress Pushpavalli on October 10, 1954. In this photo, she is seen with her mother.

2: Acting was allegedly never Rekha’s first choice. She entered showbiz as a child to support her family financially

3: Rekha initially struggled to get a foothold in Bollywood. She was reportedly considered ‘an ugly duckling’ due to her South Indian features and dark complexion.

4: Rekha was the first-ever female actor in Bollywood to enrol in a gym and train in basic exercise. She was also the first female celebrity to take swimming training.

5: Rekha was very fond of travelling and wanted to become an air hostess to travel to the world. Unfortunately, she was rejected for the job since she was too young.

6: It is said that Rekha wished to become a nun as she studied in a convent school with Irish nuns.

7: Rekha was the first actress in India to launch her fitness programme through Yoga cassettes and videos.

8: Rekha is her own stylist and loves to style herself without help for events and public appearances.

9: From Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan to Sanjay Dutt, Rekha has been linked with several prominent stars. There have also been rumours that Rekha secretly married Vinod Mehra۔

10: Many also believe that Rekha never married due to her unfulfilled romance. But in reality, Rekha did marry an industrialist, Mukesh Aggarwal, in 1990, who died by suicide a year after their marriage.

For her performance in the comedy Khubsoorat (1980), Rekha received her first Filmfare Award for Best Actress. She followed it with roles in Baseraa (1981), Ek Hi Bhool (1981), Jeevan Dhaara (1982) and Agar Tum Na Hote (1983). While mostly prolific in popular Hindi cinema, she ventured into parallel cinema, a movement of neo-realist arthouse films. These films included dramas such as Kalyug (1981), Vijeta (1982) and Utsav (1984), and her portrayal of a classical courtesan in Umrao Jaan (1981) won her the National Film Award for Best Actress. After a short setback in the mid-1980s, she was among the actresses who led a new trend of women-centred revenge films, starting with Khoon Bhari Maang (1988), for which she won a second Best Actress award at Filmfare.