Mumtaz shares her experience with Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu

Mumbai: Veteran actress Mumtaz has denied any rivalry with her fellow veteran Sharmila Tagore. Though she had earlier said that they cannot be friends or hang out with each other, she has clarified that there is no animosity between her and Sharmila. She also recalled that even though they both had worked extensively with Rajesh Khanna, the veteran actor never encouraged any kind of rivalry between them. “I respect her (Sharmila Tagore) a lot. She is much more educated and sophisticated than me. I started working at the age of eight, so I learnt everything while working. Whether it was Sharmila or any other heroine, I never got time to interact with them,” Mumtaz told Rediff. “But yes, I have done more films with Kaka (Rajesh Khanna) than Sharmila ji. It was God’s blessing that not a single film of mine with Kaka flopped. Sharmila ji had many flops with him,” she added. She further added that Rajesh Khanna worked with both the actresses, but he was very possessive towards her. She added, “Rajesh Khanna never encouraged rivalry or said a word against Sharmila ji. But he would get upset when I signed films with other heroes like Dharmendra ji or Dev sahab. But he worked with other actresses; I never got annoyed. He used to think he owned me. But no matter what, it meant he cared for me.”

For those who don’t know, in an old interview with Times Entertainment, the veteran actress had spoken about her “rivalry” with Sharmila Tagore, and said, “Heroines can’t be friends, not then, not now. We didn’t have dinners or hangouts together. It has always been like that.” Mumtaz made her Bollywood debut at the age of 11 and worked in films for almost 30 years. She often made headlines for her candid statements about her colleagues. During her recent interaction, the 77-year-old actress also shared her experience of working with Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu. She said that working with them was a “pleasure” as they treated her with “a lot of care”. She said, “Sairaji was very warm and caring during the shoot.