IndiaGlitz wishes the evergreen and ravishing Rekha, as she turns 59 today!

On this special occasion, we look back at Rekha’s beautiful journey of glitz, glamour and reel - the diva captured in her candid moments...

Coming from a Tamil-Telugu background, Rekha’s real name is Bhanurekha Ganesan.

Her first film was in Telugu as a child artist. Rekha unwillingly got into cinema at a tender age owing to financial constrain at home; especially since she had an ailing mother to take care.

For a star who now enjoys the status of a fashion diva and highly inspirational actress, surprisingly those days Rekha however was looked down for her chubby features, dark complexion and poor dressing sense. She even once admitted that she was called as ‘Ugly Duckling of Hindi films’.

Later she seriously with a determination set out to transform herself and went on to make a remarkable impact with looks and performance.

‘Sawan Bhadon’ rocketed Rekha to stardom, making people to sit up and take notice of her as an actress.

‘Ghar’ in which she plays a rape victim, bagged Rekha her first nomination for Best Actress at the Filmfare Awards while Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s ‘Khubsoorat’ earned her first Filmfare Award for Best Actress.

‘Silsila’, ‘Umrao Jaan’, ‘Khoon Bhari Maang’ are some of the milestones in Rekha’s filmography.

‘Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love’, ‘Aastha’ and ‘Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi’ are the films of Rekha which were sensational as well as sparked off controversies over her bold characters in these at that time.

After hard-hitting film ‘Lajja’ in 2001, ‘Koi Mil Gaya’ in 2003 turned out to be an impressive comeback of Rekha, as Hrithik Roshan’s mother.

Rekha’s cameo in ‘Om Shanti Om’ song was like fresh breeze.

Having last seen in ‘Sadiyaan’ Rekha makes a returns to reel in Rakesh Roshan’s magnum opus ‘Krrish 3’. Also grapevines have it that the actress will share screen with her sensational co-star Amitabh Bachchan in Anees Bazmee’s ‘Welcome Back’, if all goes well.

Just as her beauty never ceases to charm, the veteran actress time and again never fails to make an occasional screen presence.