Bhanurekha Ganesan, known by her stage name, Rekha was born in Madras. She is the daughter of late actors Pushpavalli and Gemini Ganesan. With Telugu film Inti Guttu, she made her debut as a child artist in 1958. She also appeared under her screen name Baby Bhanurekha in BN Reddy's Telugu film Rangula Ratnam . Rekha made her Hindi film debut with the film Sawan Bhadon in 1970. Some of her best works include, Ijaazat, Utsav, Umrao Jaan and Khubsoorat. For Umrao Jaan, she won the National Award. In 2010, she was honoured with Padma Shri. She was married to the late Mukesh Agarwal.