Back in 1992, after an interview at his home, Amitabh Bachchan was asked about his rumoured love affairs. He reportedly, lost cool at wife Jaya Bachchan.

Since the 70s, there have been several rumours about Amitabh Bachchan’s affairs with his co-stars like Parveen Babi and most notably Rekha. However, Big B has rarely spoken about them. Whenevever he did speak about it, he always maintained that those are mere rumours and have no truth to it. Moreover, Amitabh Bachchan is known for being calm and composed during media interactions.

However, there was a time when Sr Bachchan did lose his cool; not on camera though. Journalist Karan Thapar had revealed about the incident in his book, Devil’s Advocate: The Untold Story, as mentioned by Scroll.

In 1992, Karan had once gone to interview Amitabh Bachchan at his place, Pratikha. The interview was meant to mark Bachchan’s 50th birthday and was arranged by his then-close friend Amar Singh.

The interview was recorded in the drawing room of his bungalow. Jaya Bachchan and kids Shweta and Abhishek were also seated beside him and were a part of the interview. Thapar writes in his book that things were going well and quite smoothly until the first tape change. When the tape was being changed, Amitabh Bachchan told Thapar about Hollywood legend Warren Beatty’s interview where the interviewer had asked him about the women in his life.

Karan wrote he thought that Amitabh is giving him a hint that he should also question him about his rumoured affairs and is ready to answer them. Thapar wasn’t well worsed with the rumours but knew enought to pose questions. As soon as the tape was changed, Karan began with how during the tape change they were discussing about a particular interview of Warren Beatty and went on to ask him about his rumoured love affairs.

Karan asked, “There have been a lot of stories of your alleged love affairs with actresses. After your marriage, have you had an affair with any other woman?” Without changing his facial expression, an unperturbed Amitabh Bachchan replied, “No. never.”

He was further asked, “They say you’ve had an affair with Parveen Babi. Is there any truth to that story?” “No,” Bachchan replied adding, “I too have read such stories. They’re not true. But I can’t stop magazines writing this sort of stuff.”

Karan then asked him about his alleged affair with Rekha. After which Karan wrote that he saw slight movement in his eyes but it could also be his imagination. Amitabh replied again in a calm manner, “No, not even with her.”

The interviewer then turned to Jaya and asked if she believed what her husband was saying. The book read, “Jaya was taken aback. I could also see that Amitabh had turned his head to look straight at her as we both awaited her reply. ‘I always believe my husband,’ she said. ‘Do you really mean that, or are you only saying it because he’s sitting beside you?’ Jaya smiled. She now turned her head to look at Amitabh before she answered. ‘Of course I mean it. Why should I not?'”

After this, Karan changed the topic and went back to asking the questions he had come prepared with. The interview continued for around half an hour more. As things were going smoothly, he was convinced, Amitabh didn’t take offence to his questions.

Moreover, after the interview was done, Amitabh asked and insisted that he and his crew should stay for lunch. However, what happened next wasn’t something the senior journalist had imagined.

He said, it seemed the anger of the kind was questions he was asked was building up inside him and Bachchan took it out on his wife Jaya.

He wrote, “It started when Jaya asked Amitabh if he would like some rice. ‘You know I never eat rice,’ he snapped. ‘Why are you offering me something I never have?’ ‘I’m only offering you rice because, as yet, the rotis haven’t come,’ Jaya explained. She spoke very gently and softly. ‘I don’t want rice!’ now he was shouting. ‘I never have rice and you know that. I’m not complaining that the rotis haven’t come, but stop offering me rice instead.’ It was clear that this was his delayed and deflected response to my questions.”

The book further read, “‘I’ll just check what’s happened to the rotis,’ Jaya said. I’m sure she was trying to calm him but then, unthinkingly, she added, ‘Why don’t you have a little rice in the meantime?’ ‘Stop it. Just stop it,’ he replied. ‘I’ve said I don’t want rice and I’m happy to wait for the rotis. Can’t you understand that? What’s the matter with you? Why can’t you just listen to what I’m saying?'”