Mumtaz Opens Up On 'Rivalry' With Sharmila Tagore: 'She Had Flops With Rajesh Khanna; She's Far More...'

Veteran actress Mumtaz has declined having any rivalry with fellow veteran Sharmila Tagore. Although she had earlier said that they cannot be friends or hang out with one another, she has clarified that there is no bad blood between her and Sharmila. She also recalled that while both of them worked with Rajesh Khanna extensively, the veteran actor never encouraged any rivalry between them either.

Mumtaz told Reddif, “I respect her (Sharmila Tagore) a lot. She is far more educated and sophisticated than me. I started working at the age of eight, so I learned everything on the job. Whether it is Sharmila or any other heroine, I never had time to interact with them.”

She added, “But yes, I did more films with Kaka (Rajesh Khanna) than Sharmilaji. It was god’s blessing that not one film of mine with Kaka flopped. Sharmilaji had flops with him.” She further added while Rajesh Khanna worked with both actresses, he was possessive about her. She said, “Rajesh Khanna never fueled the rivalry or spoke a word against Sharmilaji. But he would get upset when I signed films with other heroes like Dharmendraji or Devsaab. But he worked with other heroines; I never sulked. He thought he owned me. But never mind, it meant that he cared for me.”

For the unversed, in an old interview with Times Entertainment, the veteran actress had spoken about her “rivalry” with Sharmila Tagore, and said, “Heroines cannot be friends, not then, not now. We didn’t do dinners or hang out together. It’s always been like that.” Mumtaz made her Bollywood debut when she was 11 years old and worked in films for nearly 30 years. She often made headlines for her candid statements about her colleagues.

During her recent chat, the 77-year-old actress also shared her experience of working with Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu. She said that working with them was a “pleasure” as they treated her with “so much care.” “Sairaji was so warm during the shooting. The first scene required me to hit Dilipsaab. I was petrified. He said, ‘Why won’t you hit me? Hit me hard.’ I will never forget the kindness of people like Prithviraj Kapoor, Shashi Kapoor, Mehmoodsaab, Sunil Duttsaab… we lost them so early,” she said.