Actor Waheeda Rehman blushed as she recalled memories of late actor Dev Anand, having once described him as a ‘decent flirt’. Waheeda was in conversation with former actor/writer Twinkle Khanna, for an interview shared on the Tweak India YouTube channel. 

During the conversation, Twinkle asked her questions about her early days in the film industry, and how Dev Anand developed a fondness for her, and even stood up to director Raj Khosla in her support. 

She said, “I was a huge fan of Dev Anand, and my first movie was with Dev Anand.” Twinkle remembered being ‘fascinated’ with the movie Guide when she first watched it, and asked Waheeda if he was as flamboyant in real life as he was on screen. Waheeda mimicked Dev Anand and said that when they first met, he asked her, “Waheeda, kaisi ho? Come on, let’s do this. Come on, come on.”

She continued in Hindi, “When we were first introduced, I said, ‘Namaste, Dev saab’. And he said, ‘Dev saab? Who’s that?'” He then instructed her to address him simply as Dev.

Asked about a comment about Dev Anand being a ‘decent flirt’, which she made in an interview with former journalist Rajeev Masand, Waheeda Rehman blushed. “How did he flirt, did he say you’re beautiful?” Twinkle asked, and Waheeda replied, “No, he didn’t say that. When we were discussing Guide, there was Chetan Anand, the Hindi director, and Tad Danielewski, the English director. Both of them didn’t want me, they rejected me. They didn’t like my face, maybe. And also they said, ‘Your English is not so good’. But Dev said, ‘I don’t care, my Rosie is only Waheeda’.”

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Guide, which released in 1965, also had an edited-down American version. It was also selected as India’s official entry at the Oscars. Dev Anand died in 2011.