The iconic hit film of the 70s decade of Bollywood, Sholay has been remembered for multiple reasons, some of which are directly related to the multi-starrer cast of the film. While Amjad Khan’s portrayal of Gabbar Singh gives goosebumps even today, so were the pivotal characters of Jai and Veeru played by Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra, hailed even today as the ultimate epitome of friendship. While most of these characters shared the same scene space during the film, interestingly, it was Hema Malini as Dhanno and Sanjeev Kumar as Thakur Sahab who were never captured in a particular scene together. While some may consider it a normal course of the plotline of the film, nevertheless, there was rather a peculiar reason behind the same.
To begin with, back in the early 70s, Sanjeev Kumar had asked for Hema Malini’s hand in marriage from her parents after being completely smitten and blown over by her beauty. However, Hema’s mother abstained from the match to happen since by then, she had already finalised a groom for Hema, belonging to their same caste. Hema, too, agreed with her mother and had refused Sanjeev Kumar’s marriage proposal. This action had terribly hurt Sanjeev and went to create a sour bond between the two.
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Interestingly, the story of Sanjeev Kumar and Hema Malini did not end there. Well, sometime later, it was also stated that the former did not completely end his pursuit of the Dream Girl of Bollywood. Reportedly, during the shooting of their film, Sholay¸ Sanjeev had unannounced walked towards Hema and directly proposed to her for marriage yet again. But this time, he was clearly unaware that Hema had already moved on and was dating Dharmendra, who too was a part of the film. This move of his had straight up infuriated the couple, leading to Dharam paaji seek out the filmmaker, Ramesh Sippy for some decorum.
Coming to the ending of this tiff, it was rumoured that in a fit of anger, Dharmendra had demanded Ramesh Sippy, to not even put together a single shot where Hema Malini and Sanjeev Kumar were to share the frame together at the same time. Interestingly, since Dharmendra was portraying one of the pivotal characters in the film and was a successful actor by then, Ramesh Sippy had willingly accepted his request. Therefore, if we take a closer look at the film, Sholay, one could not find any scene where Sanjeev Kumar and Hema Malini are present together.
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Despite spending all his life as a bachelor, Sanjeev Kumar was not only linked-up with Hema Malini, but with another of his co-actress, Nutan as well. Unfortunately, this too did not go well as Nutan was already married by then, and these rumours did not sit well with the legendary actress. Moreover, during the shooting of her film, Devi with Sanjeev Kumar, Nutan had even slapped Sanjeev in front of everyone as a fitting move to quench all the gossip about the duo sharing any romantic relationship. While this move of hers was widely discussed and criticised back in the day, Nutan, nevertheless had once clarified the reason behind doing the same and had mentioned:
“Ever since I acted with Sanjeev in ‘Gouri’, my relationship with him had always been friendly and straight forward, courteous, and professional. But not more than that. It was bolt from the blue when I read a report linking me romantically with Sanjeev.”
What do you think about Sanjeev Kumar’s sudden proposal to Hema Malini?
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