‘Pyaar Se Darr Nahi Lagta’

One of the most well-known Bollywood relationships to date is that between Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha. But there is a catch to their story. No one talks about it publicly.

The infamous tale of Amitabh and Rekha’s liaison started in 1976 on the Do Anjaane set, when Amitabh was still a married man. When they first started dating in secret, nobody was aware of Amitabh and Rekha’s relationship, even though he was already married. Everything was going smoothly until a mishap.

During the filming of Ganga Ki Saugandh (1978), Amitabh Bachchan allegedly lost his cool with a co-star who was acting inappropriately toward Rekha. Their relationship then gained media attention and was brought into the open.

Though neither Rekha nor Amitabh publicly acknowledged their relationship, their contentious love story has remained a secret

Since then, Rekha and Amitabh’s alleged extramarital romance has been the subject of several juicy stories in the media.

Due to this, when Rekha said that she was scared of Big B, everyone started making their own theories about which Big B she was talking about.

Is she talking about Bigg Boss or Amitabh Bachchan?

Why did Rekha say that she was scared of Big B?

The key starting point for this whole “Big B” debate was the Bigg Boss episode that aired around Dabangg’s premiere and starred Salman Khan and Rekha.

At that time, Rekha appears on Bigg Boss 8 to promote her soon-to-be-released new movie, Super Nani, which hasn’t quite captured the interest of the audience despite its trailers having been making the rounds on TV for a while.

However, things get spicier when Rekha performs the iconic phrase, from Bigg Boss host Salman Khan’s hit movie, Dabangg.

“Thappad se darr nahin lagta saab, Pyaar se lagta hai,”

Rekha ultimately added her own spin to the statement, saying,

“Thappad se darr nahin lagta, pyaar se bhi nahin lagta – woh toh main bahut de sakti hoon – darr lagta hai toh bas Big B se.”

Soon, realizing that the audience took it the wrong way and started hooting about it, damage control from her side naturally followed. She quickly clarified that when she stated “Big B,” she was referring to Bigg Boss.

Salman Khan had a dream to marry Rekha ever since he was a child

In a previous segment of the same program, Rekha recounted a story in which she described how a young Salman would accompany her on a morning walk.

Rekha said,

“I used to go on a walk in the morning and he used to be so little, must 6-7 years old, he used to cycle. I used to walk ahead and he used to follow me.”

She added,

“Unko malum hi nahi tha ki uss waqt inko mujhse ishq ho gaya tha. It’s true because he went back and told his people in the house that I want to marry that girl when I grow up.”

While blushing, Salman replied,

“Kafi laga tha mujhe, shayad isliye meri shadi nahi hui.”

Then Rekha cut him off by saying,

“Ab yeh boliye ki isliye maine shadi nahi ki.”

Salman Khan began his acting career in the movie Biwi Ho Toh Aisi, which also starred Rekha. Although Rekha and Salman were not paired up in the movie, Salman had long harbored the dream of marrying Rekha ever since he was a little boy.