New Delhi: Who says catfights still happen in Bollywood, the rivalry between two actresses has been a trend since the 70s and one of the most talked about rivalries of that time was Sharmila Tagore and Mumtaz, reportedly both the actresses couldn’t stand each other and maintained a safe distance from each other throughout their career. In her latest interview with Reddit, Mumtaz spoke about her most talked about rivalry with veteran actress Sharmila Tagore.
Talking about how she worked more with the then superstar Rajesh Khanna and how she never encouraged a feud between the two women, “I respect her (Sharmila Tagore) a lot. She is much more educated and sophisticated than me. I started working at the age of eight, so I learnt everything on the job. Whether it was Sharmila or any other heroine, I never had the time to interact with them.”
Mumtaz further said that more of Sharmila Tagore’s films with Rajesh Khanna flopped, “But yes, I did more films with Kaka (Rajesh Khanna) than Sharmila ji. It was God’s blessing that not a single film of mine with Kaka flopped. Many of Sharmila ji’s films with him flopped.”
Mumtaz also spoke about how Rajesh Khanna was much more possessive towards her than Sharmila Tagore as he mostly worked with both of them, “Rajesh Khanna never fostered rivalry or said a word against me. But he got upset when I signed films with other heroes like Dharmendraji or Dev sahab. But he worked with other actresses; I never got annoyed. He used to think he was my boss. But never mind, it meant he cared for me.”
In one of her old interviews with Times Entertainment, Mumtaz had spoken about her rival Sharmila where she claimed that back then, actresses couldn’t be friends with each other and make headlines.
Heroines can’t be friends, not then, not now. We didn’t have dinner together or hang out together. It’s always been like that.”
Sharmila Tagore is still in the game and her legacy in the film industry with the likes of Saif Ali Khan to Sara Ali Khan is cherished by her fans.
