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‘But she was a Muslim girl’ – Sanjeev Kumar’s singledom started with a first heartbreak

In ‘Sanjeev Kumar’, Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta and Uday Jariwala write about the actor’s complex and eventful love life and its intersection with his career.

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Hari’s [Sanjeev Kumar] love life can be divided into three distinct phases. The first phase is when he was a young, ambitious man in his twenties who did not want to get married before he achieved something substantial.

The second phase is when he achieved recognition as an established actor, worked alongside beautiful women, was open to love and interested in marriage. If there was any time in his life when he could’ve got married, it was this period.

The third phase was after the first heart attack in 1976. He became conscious of the transience of life and the brevity of his own. Some would say that he was disillusioned with love, but his stardom and his bachelorhood both ensured that he enjoyed unbridled female attention. After Baa’s death, he openly declared that he was not willing to commit or settle down.

Let’s now delve into each phase of his love life.


Also read: ‘Shut up! Damn you! Go to hell’ – Ashok Kumar, the heartthrob who struggled with fame


Hari’s early engagement is already described in detail by Gayatri Patel earlier in the book. The great love of his life came after he started working in cinema.

Hari said in an interview with Bunny Reuben for Star & Style’s June 1973 issue:

“Till the age of 26, I have never touched a girl. The first time I first fell deeply and seriously in love, was around that time. I wanted more than anything to marry her. I would’ve married her. But she was a Muslim girl. If I was the youngest son of my mother, I would’ve said to hell with the world and married her… She has gone through hell raising four children without my father.”

In another interview as a successful star, Hari has narrated in an uncredited article, ‘Years ago, I travelled by bus to meet my girlfriend and I think my return journey by bus was the most beautiful trip of my life. I was so full of her—it didn’t matter that I was in a bus.’

Now, Hari worked extensively with Muslim actresses Kumkum and Nazima in his early days. However, there is great speculation that this woman who stole Hari’s heart and expanded his world was Saira Bano. This was around the time when Hari played a small role in Joy Mukherjee and Saira Bano’s Aao Pyar Karen (1965), which starred Mac Mohan, Manavendranath and Haribhai as friends and supporting characters to the lead.

Sarosh Mody has spoken about this in the December 1982 issue of Stardust:

“Every woman whom Sanjeev loved and yearned for, ditched him, leaving him high and dry. His ego is terribly hurt. Sanjeev is suffering from some kind of a complex. Luck has never been in his favour. He loved them all. Saira, Nutan and Hema. Maybe with Saira, it was just an infatuation and he misunderstood her.”

Later in life, Hari has spoken about some affection between him and another Muslim girl, Shabana Azmi. He said in an interview with Vijaya Irani in the December 1979 issue of Star & Style:

“I knew Shabana for a longer period than I had known any other girl in films. Earlier, I had worked on stage with her mother Shaukat. When I first knew Shabana, she was not yet in films. What she felt for me that time must’ve been mere puppy love, but it could have culminated in an alliance with me if my mother had not put her foot firmly down. My mother, tolerant in other respects, was adamant about her refusal to accept a Muslim bahu—if I had married Shabana, I would’ve had to move out of the house and that’s something I’d never do!”


Also read: ‘Sanjeev Kumar’: New book on late superstar brings out the dada, the friend and the lover


Uday Jariwala recollects, ‘I have gone to Shabanaji’s house as child for the Holi parties that she would host. She was also a regular at our home. After Dada’s demise, we gathered all of his memorabilia and put them into cartons. Years later, when I perused through it I found that among all the fan mail, Shabana Azmi’s affectionate letter to Dada had also been preserved.’

Was it Baa’s anti-Muslim stance when it came to the matter of his marriage that came in the way of Hari’s happiness? Could it have helped Hari in the long run if Baa had been truly unconditional in her love for him?

Sanjeev Kumar Front Cover
‘Sanjeev Kumar’ Cover

This excerpt from ‘Sanjeev Kumar: The Actor We All Loved’ by Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta and Uday Jariwala has been published with permission from HarperCollins Publishers.

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