A resurfaced tale from the late 1970s sheds light on a scandal that allegedly unfolded behind closed doors at Chennai’s luxurious Hotel Chola Sheraton. According to multiple reports and whispers from the film industry, actress and dancer Vani Ganapathy—Kamal Haasan’s wife at the time—walked in on her husband with Bollywood’s enigmatic diva Rekha, leading to a fiery confrontation that sent shockwaves through the southern film circuit.
The incident is said to have taken place in late 1979, during the filming of Meendum Kokila, which starred Kamal Haasan and originally had Rekha in the lead before she was suddenly replaced. Speaking to Rediff, a journalist recounted what a hotel employee had claimed:
“In late 1979, I was working at the Hotel Chola Sheraton in Chennai. One night, when I reported for work, I found the place in a tizzy. As the girls in reception told the story, Kamal Haasan and Rekha Ganesan were in the latter’s room in the hotel when Kamal’s then-wife Vani Ganapathy arrived and gave her husband a public dressing-down.”
Though neither Kamal nor Rekha ever addressed the incident publicly, the timing of Rekha’s abrupt exit from Meendum Kokila only fuelled speculation. Malayalam actress Deepa (Unni Mary) stepped in as her replacement, and the film went on to become a critical and commercial success with Sridevi as the female lead.
At the time, Kamal Haasan and Vani Ganapathy had been married just a year, having tied the knot in 1978. However, their relationship reportedly began to deteriorate as Kamal grew close to another actress—Sarika.
That relationship too would become public later when Sarika gave birth to their daughter Shruti Haasan before marriage. Kamal and Vani divorced in 1988, and he married Sarika the same year.
Meanwhile, Rekha was simultaneously in the eye of another storm—her long-rumoured romance with Amitabh Bachchan. The two were shooting Silsila with Jaya Bachchan at the time, and gossip columns buzzed with talk of a real-life love triangle reflected on-screen.
Director-actor Ranjeet, in a 2015 Rediff interview, even recalled how Rekha had asked to reschedule film shoots to make time for Amitabh:
“The entire first schedule of Kaaranama was an evening shift. One day, Rekha called and requested if I could move the schedule to a morning shift as she wanted to spend the evenings with Amitabh Bachchan."
Though the hotel incident remains a rumor, it continues to linger as one of Indian cinema’s most explosive and unresolved scandals.
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