The eternal diva of Bollywood Rekha (her birth name is Bhanurekha Ganesan) turns 64 today but honestly, she still continues to surprise fans by looking half her age and we cannot stop gushing over how her beauty has remained intact over the years. The evergreen actress has always wowed her audience with her ageless beauty graceful presence and of course brilliant acting. From gossips about her relationship with actor Amitabh Bachchan to her immense popularity among the masses, Rekha has ruled the Bollywood industry for almost four decades. The actress, who has appeared in numerous films, has won a National Award for her performance in the 1981 period romance Umrao Jaan and three Filmfare Awards and a Padma Shri in 2010. Yamla Pagla Deewana Phir Se Trailer: Dharmendra, Sunny and Bobby Deol’s Hilarious Chemistry and Salman Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Rekha’s Cameos are the Highlights – Watch Video

As Rekha Celebrates Her 64th Birthday, Here’s a Look at Top 5 Lesser Known Facts About the Timeless Beauty:

# Rekha, during her initial days in Bollywood, was called an 'ugly duckling' due to her dark complexion and South Indian features. However, the actress made it big in Bollywood after giving hits like Khubsoorat, Khoon Bhari Maang, among others.

# Born in Madras to a Tamil superstar Gemini Ganesan and actress Pushpavalli, Rekha completed her studies from the popular Church Park Convent in Chennai. Though Rekha can speak Hindi, Tamil and English fluently, she considers Telugu to be her mother tongue.

# Rekha's father never married her mother and the actress remains an illegitimate child. In fact, her father did not acknowledge his paternity during her childhood. Speaking of siblings, Rekha has a sister, a half-brother and five half-sisters.

# Speaking of relationships, Rekha was linked with several of her co-stars like Raj Babbar, Vinod Mehra, Navin Nischol, Amitabh Bachchan, Jeetendra, Yash Kohli, Kiran Kumar, Shatrughan Sinha, Sajid Khan and Akshay Kumar. The actress was also rumoured to be secretly married to actor Vinod Mehra but the actress refuted the reports in a chat show with Simi Garewal. From what we know, the actress was madly in love with Amitabh Bachchan and they even had a secret affair. However, she was not destined to be his better half it seems.

# Speaking of passion, Rekha wanted to be an air hostess as she loved to travel the country. But it seems that destiny had something else planned for her and here she is one of the most popular actresses in Bollywood.

Over a career that spans over four decades, Rekha has appeared in more than forty films. The actress had seen in superhit films like Mr Natwarlal, Khoobsurat, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Silsila, Umrao Jaan, Utsav, among others. Rekha, however, has now stayed away from doing proper roles, apart from the occasional cameo. But the Umrao Jaan actress can never be absent from our hearts.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 10, 2018 11:00 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).