Farida Jalal talks about Rajesh Khanna's arrogance, who felt offended when she didn't give him attention; Sharmila Tagore came to her support: 'Was disgusted to see girls falling at his feet'

Farida Jalal and Rajesh Khanna had starred opposite each other in 'Aaradhna' which also had Sharmila Tagore. The film is considered one of the most popular films of Khanna and Tagore's careers, and of course their on-screen pairing was magnetic at that time. At that time, Farida was a newcomer and in a recent interview, while talking about her experience of working on the film, Jalal revealed how arrogant Rajesh Khanna was.She also confessed that she has never seen stardom like the way he had!
She revealed that while he became 'The Rajesh Khanna' only after the release of 'Aaradhna', he was quite arrogant even on the set while working on the film. She told Bollywood Bubble, "I didn’t give him as much attention, so he got annoyed with me. I was in my own world. He was a little annoyed with that."
Farida further added that he was quite rude to her as well. "I would think this man is very proud, very arrogant. When I would ask for rehearsal, he would say ‘How many rehearsals?’ I was a newcomer. I felt very bad. I even said ‘How can you talk to me like that? I can ask for 10 rehearsals if I want’. We fought there, Sharmila ji intervened. She protected me, she would speak in my defense,” said the actress.
However, she had never seen that kind of stardom and it was also a bit disgusting. "I would see how people would go mad for him. Girls would fall at his feet. They would ask him to sign on their arm, face. I used to feel disgusted looking at that. He would proudly look at me and say ‘Dekha?’ I would think I worked with him but I don’t feel this way, what is wrong with them? have never seen this kind of stardom.”
Farida was last seen in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Heeramandi' where she played the role of Qudsia Begum. She got immense love for her role as fans were delighted to see her on-screen after a while and felt like she was the surprise package of the show. It was her return to the world of entertainment world after a gap of nearly 4 years. She was last seen in Saif Ali Khan's film Jawani Jaaneman, she played his mother in the film.