News Mania Desk/ Piyal Chatterjee / 18th September 2024
Regarding her relationship with Kumar Gaurav, her first co-star, Vijayta Pandit has been candid. With the release of their first movie, Love Story (1981), they became famous suddenly. The former actor, who was married to late music composer Aadesh Shrivastava for more than 20 years, revealed in a recent interview with Lehren Retro that, despite the rumors, she had nothing to do with the cancellation of Kumar Gaurav and Raj Kapoor’s daughter Reema Jain’s engagement.
She said, “Bunty (Kumar Gaurav) was the first boy I hugged during the shoot for Love Story. Any love stories you look at, be it Rishi Kapoor-Dimple Kapadia’s Bobby, Sunny Deol-Amrita Singh’s Betaab, Sanjay Dutt and Tina Munim’s Rocky, all these actors fell in love in real life. With such films you have to get into it, feel the romance… that was the first time a boy was touching me, so we both fell in love… Bunty was very fond of me; he would keep following me, holding my hands and dancing… he used to be a very charming boy. But his father and the film’s producer Rajendra Kumar was very angry over our relationship. He would drink alcohol and tell Bunty, he was his prince, and that he should marry a princess. He said he will find his son a girl who belongs to a reputed family. When I used to hear all this, I used to be so scared, but Bunty would retaliate and tell his father that he loves me; they used to drink together and argue; I used to try and get away from this situation.”
She added, “Rajendra Kumar saw his son getting head over heels in love with me, so him and Raj Kapoor decided to get Kumar Gaurav and Reema engaged. I even attended the ceremony, I saw the huge diamond ring (Reema) she made him wear. Bunty would come to my house, I never went to his home. My mother and father were so upset and scared. My father said he will ask Rajendra Kumar to ensure his son does not visit us now that he is engaged to be married. Bunty told my mother he would marry only me, despite his engagement. She told him this was impossible and then he swore that he would marry me. And then I don’t know what happened. I got to know that he was having an affair with Namrata Dutt. So he broke off his engagement with Reema, and I had absolutely no involvement with that.”
While Kumar Gaurav later married Sanjay Dutt’s sister Namrata, the daughter of seasoned actors Nargis and Sunil Dutt, in 1984, Vijayta and Aadesh wed in 1990 and had two children together. Reema has been married to businessman Manoj Jain for several decades. Actors Armaan Jain and Aadar are raised by them.
