Rajesh Khanna’s Death Anniversary: Former Partner Anju Mahendroo Remembers ‘Kaka ji’ With a Throwback Picture

Rajesh Khanna's Death Anniversary: The superstar's close friend Anju Mahendroo remembers the superstar with a picture from the good old days.

Actor Rajesh Khanna passed away on July 18, 2012, after entertaining fans for decades and leaving behind an extraordinary legacy of an entire era of golden cinema. On his eighth death anniversary today, Khanna’s former partner and close friend Anju Mahendru took to social media to remember his dear Kaka ji. In a special post on Instagram, the veteran actor posted a throwback photo of herself posing with Khanna and wrote, “Remember you always Kakaji @Rajesh khanna 🙏 8 years!!” (sic)

View this post on Instagram

Remember you always Kakaji @Rajesh khanna 🙏 8 years!!

A post shared by Anju Mahendroo (@anjumahendroo) on Jul 17, 2020 at 2:08pm PDT

For the uninitiated, both Anju and the superstar were in a long term relationship before they called it quits and Khanna went on to marry Dimple Kapadia. However, as they grew older, both became close friends once again and Anju stayed by the actor’s side until his last breath.

Khanna and Anju were in a relationship for six years from 1966 to 1972. The two were head over heels in love with each other. However, destiny had other plans. It is believed that the actor wanted to marry his lady love and had even proposed to her but she refused to get married citing her career. Khanna made multiple attempts to convince Anju to get married to him but she remained non-committed that put him off. Also, the rumours were rife that she had started dating West Indies cricketer Gary Sobers and later, Imtiaz Ali. This led to her relationship with Khanna in a fix and the two broke off later disappointing their families and friends who loved them as a couple.

Years later, in an interview, Anju had mentioned how she was immature to have ended their relationship. However, she also revealed that Khanna was an ‘orthodox’ man and remained confused. She said, “He is a very orthodox man, yet somehow, is always attracted to ultra-modern girls. Confusion was a part of our relationship. If I wore a skirt, he’d snap, why don’t you wear a sari? If I wore a sari, he’d say, why are you trying to project a Bhartiya nari look?

In another interview with Stardust, Anju had called Khanna a problematic man. She said, “Rajesh was becoming increasingly difficult to get along with. His recent flops had upset him mentally and he was moody, temperamental, irritable. All the time he was so tense…almost a nervous wreck.”

However, Khanna had a different story to tell. He once mentioned that Anju was an absent girlfriend in their relationship and wasn’t there when he needed her the most. He said, “Often after a hard day at the studios, I’d return home to find a note saying that she had gone to so-and-so’s party…Or when I would drop in tired and lonely, at her house, I would find her entertaining friends…I’d want to spend evening alone with her.”