Veteran actress Mumtaz, who worked with late Bollywood actor Rajesh Khanna in ten films and gave back-to-back hits with him, recently said that she cannot be entirely held responsible for his decline in stardom.

During a recent interview RediffWhen asked about Khanna’s lost stardom in his last years, Mumtaz said, “We stars are because of your love. Without your love we are nothing. It was not entirely Rajesh Khanna’s fault. I remember when he was known as a phenomenon. My bungalow was very close to his. I have seen big producers and directors behaving like him. spoonsHis girlfriend Anju Mahendru hosted the whole night. She served food and drinks till 3 am in the morning.”

Mumtaz said she had seen a similar tradition at actor Shammi Kapoor’s house. “He used to spend a lot of money on entertaining guests,” she said.

“I think Shammi Kapoor let himself go and decided to live his life the way he wanted to. But it is to his credit that when he came on the sets, he worked hard. The same applies to Rajesh Khanna,” Mumtaz said.

The veteran star, who has given hits like ‘Aap Ki Kasam’, ‘Sachcha Jhootha’ and ‘Do Raaste’, criticised filmmakers for unnecessarily flattering actors.

Praising Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Mumtaz asked, “You are paying actors, why do you need to flatter them?” She further added, “Sanjay Bhansali is such a big filmmaker, but he maintains a distance from everyone. He does his work, treats his actors with respect and goes home.”

The 77-year-old actress addressed rumours of rivalry with her contemporary Sharmila Tagore during the same interview. Dismissing speculations of not getting along with Sharmila, Mumtaz said, “Not at all. I respect her a lot.”

“She is much more educated and sophisticated than me. I started working at the age of eight, so I learnt everything on the job. Whether it was Sharmila or any other heroine, I never had the time to interact with them,” the actor said.

However, she said that she did more films with Rajesh Khanna and none of their films flopped in theatres. Whereas, “Sharmila ji’s films with Rajesh Khanna were flops.”

Mumtaz said, “Rajesh Khanna never encouraged rivalry and never said a word against Sharmila ji. But he would get annoyed when I signed films with other heroes like Dharmendra ji or Dev sahab. But he worked with other actresses; I never got annoyed. He felt he was my boss. But never mind, it meant he cared about me.”

Rajesh Khanna and Mumtaz starred together in films such as Do Raaste, Aap Ki Kasam and Prem Kahani.