Bollywood Icon Rekha to Attend Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival for Indian Classic ‘Umrao Jaan’

Bollywood superstar Rekha is set to attend Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival for a special screening of Muzaffar Ali‘s freshly restored film “Umrao Jaan,” which will be shown outside of India for the first time.

The 1981 classic, starring Rekha in her Indian National Film Award-winning performance as a courtesan-poetess in 19th-century Lucknow, has been restored by the National Film Development Corporation-National Film Archive of India under the National Film Heritage Mission.

Ali will also attend the Red Sea screening that, as previously announced, is part of the fest’s Treasures strand dedicated to six classic international and Arab films. Other titles in the Treasures section include Alfred Hitchcock’s 1944 psychological thriller “Spellbound,” starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck, which marks the Red Sea fest’s first film from Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation dedicated to global cinema preservation.

“’Umrao Jaan’ is intrinsically woven into the very fabric of my soul,” Rekha said in a statement. “She is not just a character; she serves as a mirror reflecting the depths of my emotions and dreams. In fact, one could say that she mirrors my soul through the echoes of many lifetimes, portraying a narrative that transcends millions of heartbeats.”

She added: “The opportunity for this soulful film to find a new life after 45 years and connect with a fresh audience at the prestigious Red Sea Film Festival is exhilarating and profoundly meaningful. And witnessing an unprecedented moment when a 1981 classic, ‘Umrao Jaan,’ is featured in the festival’s Treasures strand alongside a film by the luminary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock is not only a blessing but humbling to the core.”

The fifth edition of the fest will run Dec. 4-13 in Jeddah, on the Red Sea’s eastern shore.