Rekha & Dasari Narayana Rao Movies Together List — 3 Films

The shape of the work

Rekha acted in every film; Dasari Narayana Rao directed all of them. Strictly Hindi cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Dasari Narayana Rao cast Rekha in 'Mehndi Rang Layegi' (1982) after she specifically requested to work with him. He was a giant in Telugu cinema and she wanted that cross-industry push.
• On the sets of 'Prem Tapasya' (1983), Dasari would write the next day's Hindi dialogues on a chalkboard every evening. Rekha would then rehearse them with him line by line, because his Telugu accent made the Hindi sound different than she expected.
• Rekha and Dasari Narayana Rao had a running joke: every time they finished a film, he would promise her a role in his next Telugu directorial. She never took him up on it, but he kept offering until 'Asha Jyoti' (1984).
• The song 'Mujhe Pyar Ka Tohfa' from 'Mehndi Rang Layegi' (1982) was later remixed by a Telugu music label in 2015 for a regional album, directly because Dasari's original Telugu version of the tune was still a cult hit in Andhra Pradesh.
• Rekha once told a film magazine in 1983: 'Dasari saab doesn't direct actors. He directs the camera to catch what the actor is already feeling. I didn't have to act in Prem Tapasya — I just had to show up.'