<\/p>\n
Bollywood superstar\u00a0Rekha is set to attend Saudi Arabia\u2019s Red Sea International Film Festival for a special screening of Muzaffar Ali\u2018s freshly restored film \u201cUmrao Jaan,\u201d which will be shown outside of India for the first time.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
More from Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Ali will also attend the Red Sea screening that, as previously announced, is part of the fest\u2019s Treasures strand dedicated to six classic international and Arab films. Other titles in the Treasures section include Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s 1944 psychological thriller \u201cSpellbound,\u201d starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck, which marks the Red Sea fest\u2019s first film from Martin Scorsese\u2019s Film Foundation dedicated to global cinema preservation.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2019Umrao Jaan\u2019 is intrinsically woven into the very fabric of my soul,\u201d Rekha said in a statement. \u201cShe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n She added: \u201cThe 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, \u2018Umrao Jaan,\u2019 is featured in the festival\u2019s Treasures strand alongside a film by the luminary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock is not only a blessing but humbling to the core.\u201d<\/p>\n The fifth edition of the fest will run Dec. 4-13 in Jeddah, on the Red Sea\u2019s eastern shore.<\/p>\n Best of Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ca.news.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bollywood superstar\u00a0Rekha is set to attend Saudi Arabia\u2019s Red Sea International Film Festival for a special screening of Muzaffar Ali\u2018s freshly restored film \u201cUmrao Jaan,\u201d 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2146296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[410048,410049,410050,410047],"class_list":["post-2146295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-gregory-peck","tag-rekha","tag-the-red-sea","tag-umrao-jaan"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Bollywood-Icon-Rekha-to-Attend-Saudi-Arabias-Red-Sea-Film.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2146295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2146297,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146295\/revisions\/2146297"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2146296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2146295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2146295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2146295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}