Vyjayantimala remembers the RK-Dilip Kumar rivalry : Bollywood News

Acting came naturally to Vyjayantimala. Playing the comic in Asha added to her repertoire

When I signed up with him, I knew about his glad eye and could make out that he was acting. I would still not say that everything about him was pretence, but yes everything revolved around him. He was very self-centered. He would go out of the way to hype it to the hilt, which was good for the film, but not good for me. The RK bandwagon even went to the extent of saying that I was somehow related to the Maharaja of Mysore. What nonsense! How could they cast aspersions like this? It was news to me that I belonged to the Mysore royal family. We only belonged to Mysore and the royal family was a great patron of art and hence this patronage. But once these rumours spread, theres no end to it. There are plenty of mongrels around, always wanting to rake up something. Nobody at home thought it could be taken lightly, they were all so upset. It not only made my family feel disrespectful, but also brought disrespect to the royal family of Mysore. They had been so nice to us and Yuvraj was very fond of my father. For no rhyme or reason, the press carried on the tirade without clarifying a single point with me. Nobody ever bothered checking it out, because such rumours no matter how baseless are so glamorous for the media. I just wasnt the kind to mix profession and pleasure. And knowing RK, they could easily say that, but what about verifying facts? It takes two to tango, but here it was all one sided. I should have been asked, otherwise I would not have fallen for Dr Bali, if I had anything going with RK.

Now one comes to the real crux of the matter. The genesis of this entire scandal that caused a stir was owing to the misconception that I was from the Dilip Kumar camp (having worked with him in a series of remarkable films), for I was simultaneously shooting for Leader as well. Sangam took four years in the making between 61 and 64. My father and manager were organising the dates. I didnt know a thing about it. I had to go wherever my dates were. If they had any misunderstanding I did not know, nor was I interested. The dates for Leader clashed with Sangam, because both wanted massive dates and my manager was chalking them out, and if I gave some dates to one movie, the other unit wanted the same date.