Waheeda Rehman reveals a Bharatanatyam guru refused to teach her as she is Muslim

Waheeda Rehman recalled how a renowned Bharatnatyam guru refused to take her as a student and later made her kundali before teaching her the dance. The actress was a special guest on Dance Deewane 3.

On Dance Deewane, Waheeda Rehman recalled an incident of how a Bharatnatyam guru refused to teach her and how she later convinced him to take her as his student. Waheeda was a special guest alongside Helen and Asha Parekh on the dance reality show. When Madhuri Dixit asked Waheeda Rehman about the difficulties she had to face in learning Bharatnatyam, she said that when she was in Chennai, she wanted to learn Bharatnatyam from a guru who was quite renowned. "Mere ek dost the, unko maine kaha 'maine inhi se seekhna hai'. Toh unhone kaha, 'nahi, main inko nahi sikha sakta.' Magar kyun nahi sikha sakte? 'Kyunki ladki musalmaan hai.' Toh usse kya taluq hai, musalmaan ho ya Christian ho ya Hindu ho? Nahi wo apne bhaav jo hai...padam hote, varnam hota hai, wo nahi kar payegi." The veteran actress further added, "Maine bahut zidd ki, mere dost ko bhejti rahi, mere mummy ke dost ko. Toh kehne lage, 'achha uski kundali le aao.' Toh humane kaha hum logo mein kundali banate nahi hai. Toh bole, 'acha, ye toh badi problem hai. Toh acha chalo iska birth date do, main apne se kundali banata hoon.' Toh unhone kundali banayi. Toh bole, 'Arre, yeh toh bahi tajoob ki baat hai. Ye kundali dikhaati hai ki yeh ladki meri aakhri aur sabse achhi student hog."