Actress and humanitarian Somy Ali, who did films like Krishna Avtaar Anth, Teesra Kaun?, Yaar Gaddar, Andolan, Mafia and Chupp, has always spoken fondly about her early memories of the Hindi film industry. Today, as Amitabh Bachchan celebrates his 84th birthday on October 11, a day after Rekha’s birthday on October 10, Somy looks back at her childhood memories of meeting the two legendary actors and reflects on their enduring contribution to Indian cinema.
For Somy, Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha have been more than just celebrated stars. She first encountered them when she was only seven, during a visit to Bombay with her mother.
“When I was seven, my mother took me to Bombay. We went to sets. I met Amitji. I met Rekhaji. I met Kakaji too, Rajesh Khanna ji, who kissed my forehead and gave me a chocolate. My mother loved him. At seven I told him I would marry him one day. He laughed,” Somy recalls.
Years later, her childhood memory of Rekha took on a special significance when Somy stepped into a role that had originally been intended for the legendary actress in Yaar Gaddar.
“I did not know then that a decade later I would step into a role that had been meant for Rekhaji, in Yaar Gaddar. I was over the moon when I learned it. She has always been the queen to me. The most beautiful. The one who carried everything and still stood,” she says.
Somy also recalls another interesting coincidence in her career involving Rajesh Khanna’s daughter, Twinkle Khanna. She had been signed for Barsaat opposite Bobby Deol but eventually stepped away from the project. The role later went to Twinkle.
“I was signed for Barsaat, opposite Bobby Deol. I stepped away. The role went to Twinkle Khanna — Kakaji’s daughter. She made it hers. I was happy for her. Some doors close so another woman can walk through them,” Somy says.
Talking about Amitabh Bachchan’s remarkable career, Somy says what inspires her is not simply the longevity of his journey but his willingness to keep challenging himself as an actor.
“Amitji turns 84 today and is still working with the same hunger. What makes the career inspiring is not the length of it. It is that he never treated the work as a throne he had already won. The angry young man could have frozen him. He refused,” she says.
“He kept choosing the harder thing: the man who is not sure, the father who fails, the poet who loves and does not keep. He stayed curious. He stayed present. That is rarer than talent,” she adds.
Amitabh Bachchan, who has delivered iconic performances in films including Zanjeer, Deewaar, Sholay, Don, Agneepath, Black, Piku and Pink, has remained one of the most influential actors in Indian cinema. Rekha, meanwhile, has created an equally enduring legacy with films such as Umrao Jaan, Khoobsurat, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Utsav and Silsila.
For Somy, Silsila remains particularly special. The Yash Chopra-directed 1981 film, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha and Jaya Bachchan, continues to be remembered for its complex portrayal of love, marriage and relationships.
“Of everything he has done, the performance that stays with me is Silsila. Not the loudest one. The one where the love never quite happens the way the heart wants it to,” she says.
Somy feels the film captured an emotional truth that continues to resonate decades later.
“Amitji as the man caught between the woman he married and the woman he cannot stop loving. Rekhaji as Chandni, carrying the dignity of a love that the world will not allow. Jaya ji as the wife who knows. The film does not give anyone an easy ending. It gives the truth: sometimes the most beautiful thing is the thing that does not get to finish,” she says.
Recalling the iconic song Yeh Kahan Aa Gaye Hum, Somy adds, “It is not a song. It is a question the heart keeps asking after the lights come up.”
For Somy, watching Silsila over the years has also acquired a deeply personal meaning.
“I have watched it as a child who had just met them, and as a woman who later stood in a role that was supposed to be hers. The irony is not lost on me. A little girl meets the two people who will become the definition of a love the world still talks about, and years later she is asked to fill a space that was first drawn for the woman who made that love unforgettable,” she says.
Somy believes there is also a valuable lesson for the younger generation of actors in the careers of Bachchan and Rekha.
“What younger actors can learn is simple, and hard. Amitji never stopped showing up as if the next scene mattered more than the last one. Rekhaji never let the noise decide who she was. She stayed elegant when the stories around her were not,” she says.
“Both of them treated the craft as something you keep serving, not something you spend. Relevance is not a strategy. It is the result of still meaning it. The audience can feel the difference between a person who is performing the idea of staying and a person who is still in the room with the work.”
Looking back, Somy says her understanding of the two legends has changed with age, but her admiration remains unchanged.
“I met them when I was small enough to believe the screen and the people were the same thing. I am old enough now to know they are not. But Silsila still feels like the place where the two almost touched. The love that never quite happened, and somehow still did, for everyone who watched it. That is the performance that impressed me most. It still does.”
She concludes, “Happy birthday, Rekhaji. Happy birthday, Amitji.”
@realsomyali
