Rajesh Khanna, celebrated as Hindi cinema’s very first superstar, was not only admired for his charisma on screen but also for the grandeur with which he lived off it. His lavish lifestyle extended to his dining table as well, with food habits that were as indulgent as the man himself.While the late actor was married to Dimple Kapadia in 1973, they soon started living separately. His girlfriend Anita Advani who was living with him till his last breath, has now claimed that they were secretly married in 2004 and were staying together for 12 years. In a recent appearance on the YouTube channel Reel Meets Real, Anita Advani, opened up about his elaborate culinary demands. She revealed that the actor liked nothing less than a feast. “He had about six to seven staff members, including a dedicated cook. Sometimes, I would prepare dishes for him, he loved chole, so I learnt how to make chole with bhatura,” Anita recalled.She added that dosas were part of his daily routine, and he relished different varieties of parathas, from potato to radish to cabbage. Khanna would sample each kind and expected a minimum of ten dishes to be placed on the table. According to Anita, this high standard kept the household staff constantly on their toes, though no food ever went to waste since the team would share the leftovers. Anita also remembered Khanna’s sharp wit when his expectations weren’t met. “If there weren’t enough dishes on the table, he would ask, ‘Are we refugees? Why aren’t we being served enough food?’” she shared.Meanwhile, in another podcast, ‘Meri Saheli’, Anita had shared details about their secret wedding. She had said, “We got married privately, but in the film industry, no one talks about such things openly. Everyone says ‘we’re friends’ or ‘we’re in a relationship’ or something else. But it was already reported in the media that I was with him, so neither of us felt the need to go and publicly announce that we were married. We never felt that need.” She went on to recount how the private ceremony took place: “We had a small temple in our home. I had a mangal sutra made, gold with black beads. He made me wear it. Then he applied sindoor and said, ‘From today, you are my responsibility.’ That’s how our wedding happened one night, just like that.”
