When Gulzar slapped Rakhee during the shoot of Sanjeev Kumar, Suchitra Sen 'Aandhi'; she signed 'Kabhi Kabhie' opposite Amitabh Bachchan the next day!

Lyricisit-turned-director Gulzar is known for his deep lyrics and movies that made a lasting impact and are remembered till date. Gulzar has made some fine movies like 'Angoor', 'Aandhi', 'Maachis', 'Ijaazat', among others. Gulzar married popular actress Rakhee but the couple separated since many years due to some differences. Here's recalling the time when an incident led to the problems between the couple.

Gulzar was shooting for 'Aandhi' in Kashmir with Sanjeev Kumar and Suchitra Sen, in 1975. The crew partied till late night on one of the days and when Suchitra was walking towards her room, Sanjeev allegedly grabbed her and pulled her towards him. That's the moment when Gulzar stepped in and saved Suchitra.

When Gulzar finally managed to free Suchitra from Sanjeev, she ran into her room and Gulzar followed her. The director and the actress had a long conversation inside the room for two hours but reportedly when he came out of the room, he was confronted by a fuming Rakhee who was waiting outisde. They got into an argument and Gulzar ended up slapping Rakhee out of anger.

Meanwhile, Rakhee had quit acting when she married Gulzar as he was old-school and he felt it was not appropriate for married women to work in movies. She quit acting at the peak of her career when directors had lined up to cast her. But post this slap incident, Rakhee went on to sign Yash Chopra's 'Kabhi Kabhie' the next day, which turned out to be iconic. Yash Chopra was about to take Gulzar's permission to cast her in the movie, but she agreed despite her husband being against it.

'Kabhi Kabhie' starred Rakhee, alongside Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Neetu Singh, Rishi Kapoor.

Since then, Gulzar and Rakhee had their differences and they live separately. Though, they never got officially divorced as it would have impacted their daughter Meghna Gulzar who was growing up. Gulzar and Rakhee continue to spend time together with their daughter and they have immense love and respect towards each other.

Very recently, Meghna Gulzar had dropped a picture where the entire family spent quality time together over chai and samosa!


Meghna's last directorial was Vicky Kaushal starrer 'Sam Bahadur'.
Get the latest entertainment updates from the Times of India, along with the latest Hindi movies, upcoming Hindi movies in 2026 , and Telugu movies.”