When Sharmila Tagore felt relieved about doing less films with Rajesh Khanna: 'He never arrived before 12 for a 9am shift'

Sharmila Tagore and Rajesh Khanna formed one of the most celebrated on-screen pairs of Hindi cinema. Be it 'Aaradhna', 'Amar Prem' or 'Daag', and many more, Sharmila and Rajesh have done many movies together. Since they were a hit pair, they were often cast together but then came a point where they started reducing their on-screen outings. Tagore spoke about it after Khanna's death.This was in 2022, when Tagore opened up about working with him in the audiobook, 'Rajesh Khanna: Ek Tanha Sitara'. She said that she was really punctual about her shifts because she wanted to spend time with her family as well. But this was not possible when she was working with Rajesh Khanna. Sharmila said, "But his was impossible since Kaka never arrived before 12 for a 9 am shift. And we could never finish on time. As a result, the entire unit would pressurize me to work overtime and complete the schedule. This became the norm, and since I had many films with Kaka, I found myself in a quandary."She also added, "One runs the risk of becoming stale. Whatever it was, we found ourselves working together in fewer films. And I must confess it was a huge relief."Apart from Sharmila, many of Khanna's other co-stars have also spoken about his habit of turning up late on set. Infact, it was for this reason that the actor did not work again with Yash Chopra and it was reported that Chopra replaced Khanna in many of his movies later with Amitabh Bachchan.Rajesh Khanna passed away in 2012.