New Delhi, June 7 (IANS) The ‘Yeh dosti nahin todenge’ song was portrayed on reel by Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra, but in reallife, it fits quite well for Bollywood’s Hema Malini and Rekha. The BJP MP has acknowledged Rekha, for the funds she gave as a nominated Rajya Sabha MP, which have finally been released by the government and used for infrastructure development of a college, benefiting scores of students in Mathura.
“I have given The RCA Degree College for Science Labs in Mathura Rs 50 lakh (given on my request during my previous tenure by my dear friend and Rajya Sabha member Rekha from her MP funds). This money is to improve the infrastructure of the college,” Hema tweeted on Thursday.
The story behind it is that Rekha made a contribution from her side during her tenure as a Rajya Sabha MP, which began on April 27, 2012 and ended on April 26, 2018.
Rekha assured Rs 1.25 crore to Hema Malini from her Rs 5 crore MPLAD funds. Out of this Rs 68.52 lakh was released for the Mathura project. But officials failed to prepare a proper project Report, due to which the funds got stuck.
Now, Hema, who recently won from the Mathura constituency in the Lok Sabha elections, persisted and expedited the project report and got funds to be released by the government.
The back story was also detailed in the biography “Hema Malini: Beyond the Dream Girl” by author Ram Kamal Mukherjee.
He wrote: “When her former colleague Rekha helped Hema renovate two schools in Mathura — Hema’s constituency — it led to a furore in Parliament. People claimed that Rekha was helping Hema out only because they were friends.
“Hema tried her best to clear the air (by saying), “It’s true that I got Rekha to give a huge sum of money… but it is not her own money. This is the money from the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Fund for public welfare. Since I had used up all my funds for Mathura, and Rekha was not using her funds, I decided to ask for some money.”
Mukherjee said that despite their lasting friendship, getting the funds wasn’t a smooth process for Hema.
He quoted her as saying, “Though she is my friend, I couldn’t call her directly. I had to convince her secretary about the urgency of the situation. Rekha then gave Rs 35 lakh for the Raman Girls Degree College and another Rs 12 lakh for the Kasturba Gandhi Girls Residential School.”
Their bond was unique as they were both leading ladies of the time. They worked together in films like “Gora Aur Kala”, “Jaan Hatheli Pe” and even in the 2010 film “Sadiyaan”, apart from having much in common: their southern roots, their beauty, their flawless acting and dancing skills.
Hema and Rekha’s friendship goes back to decades.
In fact, in an interview, Hema had said that Rekha is her only “close friend” in the industry.
Such was their bond that when Rekha married Mukesh Aggarwal in 1990, Hema was the first person she visited after the ceremony, noted Yasser Usman in the book “Rekha: The Untold Story”.
Rekha attended Hema’s 70th birthday on October 16 last year.
–IANS
ds-rb/prs