November 6 marked the death anniversary of a stalwart of Hindi cinema, who, in a short career, won people’s hearts with his powerful performances. We are talking about the legendary late actor Sanjeev Kumar whose performance of Thakur Baldev in the cult classic Sholay often overshadows other equally versatile performances. Two of them include the portrayal of a mentally challenged man in Khilona and a deaf and mute man in Koshish. Sanjeev Kumar had always aced a wide variety of roles with equal finesse.
Sanjeev Kumar’s personal life had a dose of unrequited love and the equation between Hema Malini, Sanjeev Kumar and Sulakshana Pandit was much talked about. Sanjeev Kumar was known to be smitten by Hema Malini, who did not reciprocate his feelings. In turn, Sulakshana Pandit was smitten by Sanjeev Kumar, who did not reciprocate her love. While Hema Malini later married Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar died unmarried at the age of 47, and Sulakshana Pandit never married either.
It is almost ironic that Sanjeev Kumar, who never married himself, had a big role in saving the marriage of two of his friends and colleagues, Shatrughan Sinha and Amitabh Bachchan. As reported by BBC, Shatrughan Sinha once mentioned in an interview that he was in dire need of money after marrying Poonam. It was a difficult phase for him, and financial constraints had even put his marriage on the rocks.
When no one was ready to loan him some money, Sanjeev Kumar gave him Rs 10 lakh and said he could return it whenever he had the means to. This greatly strengthened the bond between the two actors.
According to the book An Actor’s Actor: The Authorized Biography of Sanjeev Kumar by Hanif Zaveri and Sumant Batra, there was a turbulent moment in the marriage of Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan. Sanjeev Kumar then played mediator between the two and saved their marriage.
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