Madhubala lived a tragic life during which she experienced many heartbreaks. After making her debut in the early 1940s as a 9-year-old, she got her first major hit at the box office in 1949 with Mahal, which was directed by Kamal Amrohi. And during the making of this film, Madhubala and Kamal fell in love, as per Kamal’s son Tajdar Amrohi. In a recent interview, Tajdar revealed that his father, who was married with children at the time, broke up with Madhubala because she wanted him to divorce his wife, Sayeda and let go of his family.

‘Kamal Amrohi broke up with Madhubala’

In a chat with Vickey Lalwani on his YouTube channel, Tajdar said that Kamal had a short-lived relationship with Madhubala, which was way before he met and married actor Meena Kumari. “My father was the one who… I won’t say rejected, but he was the one who stepped back from the relationship. He called it off,” he said.

When asked about the reason for the same, he said, “Madhubala wanted my father to divorce my mother.” Later, when Kamal married Meena, she did not make any such demands. Tajdar recalled that he was just 3-4 years old when his father had an affair with Madhubala.

‘Madhubala had other relationships’

“There was a lot of gossip around their relationship. It had leaked to the papers and everyone in the industry knew about it,” he said and added, “Madhubala wasn’t an ordinary heroine. She was a major star of her time, and she was so beautiful.” He then proceeded to list Madhubala’s other failed relationships and said, “There were many stories of her relationships with others as well. It is well known that she was with Dilip Kumar.”

Madhubala and Dilip Kumar during the shoot of Mughal-e-Azam.

He said that when Madhubala placed this “strange demand” in front of his father, he rejected it. “She was a major star and a producer as well. She had lots of money too. She said, ‘I will give you x amount of money. You give this much to your wife and to your kids, and get them out of your life’,” Tajdar claimed. To this, Kamal said, as per his son’s claims, “My father told her, ‘We won’t meet from here on because I sell stories and dialogues, not my children and wife. You want me to leave my wife. That won’t happen. She is a woman of my family’.” Tajdar shared that his mother was the daughter of Kamal’s maternal uncle and they came from the same family.

‘My mother didn’t know about my father’s affair’

He also claimed that Madhubala was “disappointed” when they broke up. Although her father, Attaullah Khan, had “no objection” to this union as Kamal had become a “big name” after the success of Mahal.

Story continues below this ad

When asked if his mother was aware of this affair, Tajdar shared, “My mother didn’t know about Madhubala. She just knew that Mahal was being made, and it was my father’s first directorial.”

In an earlier chat with Urdu, Kamal’s daughter Rukhsar had said that her mother learnt of Kamal’s marriage to Meena via film magazines as she was living in their village in Uttar Pradesh with the children. She eventually encouraged her children to start correspondence with Meena Kumari through letters. They developed a strong relatonship with her and started addressing her as ‘Choti Ammi’.

Kamal Amrohi and Meena Kumari on the set of Pakeezah.

After Kamal’s marriage to Meena, he did not visit his wife or children and so Sayeda, decided to pay him a surprise visit in Mumbai. “I still remember sweat dripping from his brow; he had no idea what to do. He asked why my mother had shown up without informing him, and told her that he had become too busy with Pakeezah to pay us a visit,” she said. Rukhsar said that her mother had actually visited Mumbai to vist Meena Kumari as she had a medical emergency and she wanted to show her support towards the newest member of the family.

About Kamal Amrohi

Kamal married four times during his lifetime. After his first wife Bilkis’s death, he married Sayeda, who was Tajdar and Rukhsar’s mother. In 1952, he married actor Meena Kumari and the two shared a tumultuous relationship until her death in 1972. Kamal stayed married to Sayeda through this marriage and Tajdar spent a few years of his childhood with Meena, before Kamal and Meena’s separation. After Meena’s death, Kamal married his doctor in his last years. He died in 1972.

Story continues below this ad

Kamal Amrohi is best known for making films like Pakeezah and Razia Sultan. He also wrote the dialogues for Mughal-E-Azam.