Big B first met Rekha in Jaya Bachchan's building

Rekha has turned 69 today. Every year, on her birthday, a bevy of nostalgia driven stories keep popping up. These are gems that recreate the legacy of Rekha's illustrious career, as well as, her much-talked about personal life. While all of us have heard of countless stories around Rekha's association with

Jaya

Bachchan and

Amitabh

Bachchan, including their cult classic movies like Silsila, rarely have we heard of Rekha's and Jaya Bachchan's friendship, which predates Amitabh Bachchan's rise to stardom.

Here, we recreate excerpts from author

Yasser Usman

's book titled Rekha: The Untold Story. A chapter titled "Didibhai" chronicles the old friendship between Rekha and Jaya, which dates back to the early 70s. Believe it or not, but Rekha and Jaya were neighbours and a young Rekha used to visit Jaya's house on a regular basis.
As the book chapter reveals, "After the success of her first few films, Rekha bought her own flat in Bombay in 1972. Leaving Hotel Ajanta, she shifted to Juhu's Beach Apartments at age eighteen. In the same apartment building lived the actress Jaya Bhaduri, who had then firmly established herself as an actress par excellence. She had the range to easily fit the needs of commercial as well as meaningful cinema. This was why she was counted amongst the most versatile, important and serious actors of that time."
That's not all. It was Jaya Bhaduri's plush apartment in Bombay is where Rekha first met Jaya's close friend, Amitabh Bachchan. Another excerpt from the book reveals, "At Beach Apartments, Rekha and Jaya would often meet. Rekha affectionately called Jaya Didibhai, and frequently went over to Jaya's flat to spend time with her. The latter would advise her on life and career. It was there that Rekha first met Jaya's boyfriend, Amitabh Bachchan."

These stories are further corroborated by another excerpt that references actor-filmmaker Mehmood's biography, detailing the time when Rekha, Jaya and Amitabh used to hang out as buddies. The book also reveals and we quote, "It is said that during those times Amitabh's girlfriend Jaya was a pillar of strength to him. More successful than him she even referred him to several producers. Author of the actor Mehmood's official biography, Hanif Zaveri, says, Amitabh and Anwar [Mehmood's brother] were close friends. Anwar told me that he had often taken Amitabh and Jaya on long drives. The two would sit in the front seat of the car along with him while Rekha would sit in the back seat and they would talk through the journey.' This is also recorded in Mehmood's official biography Mehmood: A Man of Many Moods."

It's fascinating how Jaya and Rekha's friendship played out over the last 5 decades. The same chapter in Rekha: The Untold Story also details the circumstances that lead to the fallout between the two friends and it happened after Jaya tied the knot with Amitabh Bachchan in 1973.