Rajesh Khanna was in a relationship with Anju Mahendru before he got married to Dimple Kapadia. The superstar is known to have taken his ‘baaraat’ purposely past Anju’s house while he married Dimple who was half his age. But in a recent interview, veteran journalist and author Hanif Zaveri has revealed that Sanjeev Kumar had already given a diclaimer to Anju about Khanna. Zaveri has written Sanjeev Kumar’s biography ‘An Actor’s Actor: The Authorized Biography of Sanjeev Kumar’. Hanif appeared in this interview with Sanjeev Kumar’s niece Jigna Shah and they spoke about his life, which included his career, personal life and relationships. He revealed during this chat with that Sanjeev was very good friends with Rajesh Khanna and Anju Mahendru and he had warned the latter that he won’t marry her. He told Vickey Lalwani, “According to Anju, when she was seeing Rajesh Khanna, Sanjeev Kumar had already warned her about him. He said, ‘Yeh aadmi shakki hai, iske saath kisi ki life nahi chal sakti (He’s a suspicious man, nobody can live with him)’. Sanjeev ji had said this to Anju Mahendru. He told her, ‘You won’t have a happy life if you marry him’.”He added, “Anju told me, ‘Rajesh Khanna ko shaq tha ke main Sanjeev Kumar ko date kar rahi hu. Wahan se unka jhagda start hua tha.’ Yeh Anju ji ka statement hai.” Which is why, Rajesh Khanna and Sanjeev Kumar could never stand each other. He further recalled director J Om Prakash telling him that when he started ‘Aap Ki Kasam’, he got calls from 20 people in the industry warning him to not cast Rajesh and Sanjeev together. “He was warned by at least 20 people in the industry that he was making a big mistake by casting Sanjeev Kumar and Rajesh Khanna in the same film together, because it would never be completed. In fact, Hrishikesh Mukherjee first offered Anand to Sanjeev Kumar, but Rajesh Khanna forced the director to replace him. He was fine with Amitabh Bachchan, but he underestimated him, and it backfired,” he shared. During the same interview, Hanif and Jigna shah also spoke about Sanjeev Kumar’s relationship with Hema Malini. They revealed that the couple broke up because Hema Malini’s mother wanted her daughter to work even after marriage which Sanjeev did not want.
