Bollywood is full of stories about off-screen romances that spark public curiosity. One such chapter comes from the 1970s, when the legendary Rekha was linked actor Kiran Kumar. Though neither ever confirmed anything openly, old interviews and magazine snippets hint that the two may have shared a special bond.‘She’s somebody I’ll always cherish’In a past interview with Siddharth Kannan, Kiran Kumar spoke fondly of Rekha. Even though he admitted they haven’t met in years and he doesn’t plan to reach out, he still has great respect for her.“Rekha ji is a lovely person, she has a heart of gold and the face of a diva, I fail to understand how she can manage to look the way she looks now, after all these years. She’s a person I have a lot of reverence for. I haven’t crossed paths with her in a long time, but she’s somebody whom I’ll always cherish in my heart, that’s it,” he said.Kiran also shared that while he would be happy to speak to her again, he wouldn’t make the first move. “I don’t want to get in touch with her. I don’t want to call her up and say, ‘Ma’am, I want to meet you’. I don’t want to do that. She has her own life, and I have mine. If destiny desires, we will meet and talk as friends. That woman has a heart of gold, dil ki sona hain woh.”Rekha teased him about being a ‘mumma’s boy’Their playful past goes back to a 1975 issue of Stardust magazine. In that feature, Rekha cheekily called Kiran a ‘mumma’s boy’. She joked about how he would make sure to be home by 10 pm to have a glass of milk. “Haven’t I had enough mama’s boys,” she had said.Meanwhile, the magazine reported that Kiran got annoyed when Rekha would mimic the voice of one of his ex-girlfriends during their phone calls. “And then, when I’m sweet to her, she gets mad,” he had said back then.‘Nobody has helped me grow…’When asked if Rekha helped him grow as a person, Kiran was clear that all the women he’s met have played a part. But he made it clear that he takes credit for his own journey. He said, “Nobody has helped me grow. I’m responsible for my own growth… All the women I’ve met in my life, each one has helped me evolve as a person. All of them. There isn’t one person in particular who has made me grow. My successes are my own, my failures are own. I won’t attribute them to anybody.”Rekha and Kiran Kumar surprisingly never starred together in any major film. Despite old rumours about their personal lives, they did not share screen space as co-stars in Bollywood movies.
