Moushumi Chatterjee was a reigning queen of the film world in the 1970s. The actress worked with the biggest names in the film industry, from Amitabh Bachchan to Rajesh Khanna.
In an interview, Moushumi Chatterjee spoke candidly about Rajesh Khanna. She humorously described Hindi cinema’s first superstar as a spoiled brat and how his success always went to his head.
Moushumi Chatterjee recounts the good and bad days of Rajesh Khanna’s life. The story of Rajesh Khanna’s rise and fall from stardom, which peaked in the mid-1970s, is a tale that goes a long way. While the angry young man Amitabh Bachchan was making his way through the crowd, romantic hero Rajesh Khanna was grappling with the changing gaze of the audience, which shifted from him to someone else. This led him to despair, loneliness, and addiction to drugs to completely numb his emotions. When asked if she had noticed that he was perhaps feeling lonely, she replied,
So Moushumi Chatterjee says, no, it’s all karma. The way you shape your life, the way you pretend to be someone you’re not, and the way you react to relationships are all a result of that. She adds, “If you say everyone is alone, then you should know how to enjoy your solitude. Don’t feel lonely. I enjoy my solitude, and I see that kind of emptiness. Everyone goes through it in life. Take Kishore Kumar, Madhubala, anyone? They all went through it.”
Whatever is happening is a part of your life. It is not your entire life. She also recalled an incident with Rajesh Khanna when he asked her a shocking question. Moushumi has often recounted the story of Rajesh Khanna once making a shocking comment about her personal life and relationships. She said that Kaka had questioned the father of her daughter and asked whether her father was her husband Jayant Mukherjee or Vinod Mehra.
