Sanjeev Kumar is still remembered as one of the best actors in Hindi cinema, even now, years after he passed away. Apart from his onscreen performances, Sanjeev Kumar has also been in the news due to link-up rumours and relationships with his co-stars. Sanjeev Kumar and Hema Malini were in a relationship and he also wanted to marry her. However, things did not work out and in a recent interview, veteran journalist Hanif Zaveri who wrote Sanjeev Kumar’s biography titled, ‘An Actor’s Actor: The Authorized Biography of Sanjeev Kumar’ has opened up on it. Hanif was in this interview with Sanjeev Kumar’s niece Jigna Shah. Talking about it during an interview with Vickey Lalwani, he said, “Bakaida rishte ki baat gayi thi Madras. Hema Malini ki mother ne shart rakhi thi that my daughter will continue to work after marriage but he wanted his wife to stay at home. (They were officially in a relationship and he had sent the proposal to her mother in Madras but she had this condition that her daughter Hema will work after marriage).” He added further, “It that time, she was at the peak of her career and I don’t think anyone who is at number 1 would want to leave her career. Hema Malini thought she would be able to convince him but he didn’t agree. That led to their break-up.”Their love story, he said, had blossomed during the making of ‘Seeta Aur Geeta’. When asked if romance developed between them at that time, Hanif confirmed the same and addressed that initially, the rumours of Dharmendra, Hema’s relationship were baseless. He said, “Dharmendra and Hema Malini ke romance ke charche tab udd rahe the when Sanjeev Kumar and Hema Malini were deeply in love. There was nothing between Dharmendra and Hema when rumours about them started. It was just that their on-screen pairing became a hit.”After his break-up with Hema, Sanjeev Kumar found it difficult to even face her professionally. “He was heartbroken so he did not want to get into the same frame anymore,” Hanif shared. “Sanjeev Kumar was supposed to do the film but he refused the film because of Hema Malini after the break-up.”Zaveri further revealed that even when he did agree to work in ‘Trishul’, it was on one condition. “Sanjeev Kumar agreed to do the film because there was not an interaction between them. But Yash Chopra just said in the climax there is a scene where the entire cast is in one frame but they are not talking to each other.”Their separation had ripple effects beyond their personal lives. “When Sanjeev Kumar, Hema Malini broke up, their film Dhoop Chaav which they were doing together, got affected,” Hanif recalled. “But another film which got affected was Apne Dushman which starred Dharmendra and he said he doesn’t want to work with Sanjeev. So that film got stuck for a long time.”Zaveri also spoke about Sanjeev Kumar’s other relationships and the emotional restraint he often carried. “It’s true that he was involved with Nutan and then Hema Malini but after that it was one sided. For instance, Sulakshana Pandit wanted to marry him but he was not interested. She also took him to temple to get married but he said no because he had this intuition that he won’t live long so he did not want to spoil someone’s life.”
