Film stars are expected to shock with their apparel and appearances, but not with socio-religious customs. Yet she began applying sindoor - the traditional symbol of a married Hindu woman - even a decade before her one acknowledged marriage and at an official award ceremony, even President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy couldn't keep from asking her why. It was fashionable in her home city, replied Rekha.

That was Rekha - always seeking to live and work on her own terms, right from her career's start in a staid, conventional era. But as this biography tells us, the journey of a rather pudgy and dark-complexioned Bhanurekha Ganesan, who even didn't know Hindi, to becoming a stylish, seemingly ageless diva who entranced Hindi movie fans over four decades, was far from smooth, or even assured.

"Millenials think of her as retiring and distant. But how did she get there? Who is the real Rekha? Is she the mysterious and elusive woman of the years after her doomed marriage? Or the carefree and loudmouthed teenager who never shied away from speaking her mind? Is she the product of her association with Amitabh Bachchan? Is there more to the story of Bollywood's 'eternal other woman'?"
These are the questions that Yasser Usman, in the second of his planned biographical trilogy on Indian superstars (after beginning with late Rajesh Khanna), seeks answers to as he takes us through her roller-coaster life.