Rekha played the title role of a courtesan and poet from 19th century Lucknow. In 1981, she starred in Umrao Jaan, a film adaptation of the Urdu novel Umrao Jaan Ada (1905), written by Mirza Hadi Ruswa. It won the Filmfare Award for Best Film and Rekha won her first Best Actress award. In 1980, Rekha appeared in the comedy Khubsoorat, directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, with whom she had developed a strong father-daughter bond during their previous collaborations. The film opened to a positive critical reception, and Rekha's performance as a courtesan named Zohra, noted for a "smouldering intensity", earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Filmfare.
The movie was the biggest hit of that year, as well as one of the biggest hits of the decade, and Rekha was set as one of the most successful actresses of these times. In that same year, she attained fame with Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, in which she co-starred once again with Amitabh Bachchan. She appeared in several commercially successful films at the time, including Raampur Ka Lakshman (1972), Kahani Kismat Ki (1973), and Pran Jaye Par Vachan Na Jaye (1974), yet she was not regarded for her acting abilities. In fact, w h en Navin Nischol found out that Rekha had been signed as his co-star for Sawan Bhadon, he complained to the producer: “From where did you pick out this namoona ? Itni kaali-kalooti !”. I was determined to make it big on sheer merit. I used to feel deeply hurt when people compared me with the leading heroines of the time and said I was no match for them. Rekha recalls "I was called the ‘Ugly Duckling’ of Hindi films because of my dark complexion and South Indian features. Coming from the South, she did not speak Hindi and struggled to communicate with co-workers, and was constantly missing her mother, who was critically ill. Still, a teenager, acclimatising herself to her new surroundings was an uneasy process.
She had no interest in acting and was basically forced to work to sustain her family financially, this was a difficult period in her life. Her first Hindi film was Anjana Safar but this film couldn't release. Rekha started her career in 1966 as a child actress in the Telugu film Rangula Ratnam, though her film debut as a lead happened four years later with Sawan Bhadon.
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