Simi Garewal Birthday: 5 iconic interviews with Bollywood stars

Simi Garewal is the original talk show host pioneer in Bollywood. Her show - Rendezvous With Simi Garewal - featured the crème de la crème of Bollywood and the stars didn’t just appear for a TV spot. They came and spoke their hearts. There have been countless iconic moments when B-Town’s best opened their heart and soul to Simi, but there were a select few interviews which really were a cut above the rest. On her birthday today, we look back at Simi’s 5 most unforgettable and iconic moments with top Bollywood stars.

In a rare public appearance, all four from the Bachchan clan - Amitabh, Jaya, Shweta and Abhishek appeared on Simi’s show. Shweta admitted that she was always the older sister and therefore the shield of Abhishek. Abhishek confessed that he was the baby of the family and parents Jaya and Amitabh acknowledged that he was a naughty boy but not a brat. The candid chat with The Bachchans was truly one-in-a-million.

Simi has interviewed Sushmita Sen on multiple occasions, but the most memorable one was when Sushmita revealed that she had been to 14 organisations for adopting a child and all of them rejected her because she was single. She also explained that a lot of people think she wanted to do it for publicity. Sush also confessed that if she wanted publicity, she would feature on the cover of a magazine and not take up the responsibility of a child for the rest of her life.

Rekha spoke candidly about falling in love with Amitabh Bachchan. While Simi was able to draw her out, Rekha did manage to add a level of generic quality about Mr Bachchan’s charisma. She said that she had never met a man, woman or child who didn’t hopelessly fall in love with Mr Bachchan and she also added that she doesn’t understand why she is singled out.

Raveena Tandon put up a brave effort as she spoke about her failed engagement with a top B-town star and then dealing with the heartbreak of that relationship going kaput. While it was explicitly said that Raveena was referring to her relationship with Akshay Kumar, fans certainly believe that to be true.

There are lots of moments from this interview with SRK and Gauri that have become viral over the years. For starters, most SRK fans remember the deep passion and love that Shah Rukh expressed for Gauri on the show. It really melted a million hearts back in the late 90s, when the episode was telecast. Also, some parts of the interview didn’t age well - particularly where SRK spoke of pampering his first born Aryan. He had allegedly mentioned that he would let the young Khan do drugs. The clipping did become viral last year when Aryan was apprehended by the NCB.