When Govinda spoke about the possibility of ‘getting involved again’: ‘Sunita should be prepared’

‘Sunita said something about Neelam, and I broke off my engagement with her’

At one point, Govinda’s feelings for Neelam Kothari were so intense that he struggled to see her paired opposite another actor on screen. More significantly, he even jeopardised his engagement to Sunita after she made a remark about Neelam during an argument. Recalling the incident in an interview with Stardust, Govinda said, “I am very impulsive. After I started getting busier, my relationship with Sunita went through a change. She began feeling insecure and jealous. And I was of no help. She would nag me, and I would lose my temper. We had constant fights. In one of those fights, Sunita said something about Neelam, and I lost my head and called it quits. I asked Sunita to leave me. I broke off my engagement with her. And had Sunita not called me after five days and coaxed me into it again, I would probably have married Neelam.”

“Yes, I wanted to marry her. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Neelam was the ideal girl, the kind every man visualises for a life partner. The kind of girl I wanted. But that was getting emotional. There was another practical side. Just because I had fallen in love elsewhere, I couldn’t overlook my commitment towards Sunita. If there was no sense of duty in a man, this would go on. Leave one for another and another for another,” he added.

‘My dad was very keen that I marry Neelam, my mother wanted me to honour my word to Sunita’

His feelings for Neelam Kothari were so strong that Govinda’s jealousy knew no bounds when she worked with other actors. “My dad was very keen that I marry Neelam. He was very fond of her. She had even visited him with her family in Virar. But my mother thought differently. She felt that since I had given my word to Sunita, I must honour it. And I knew that if I didn’t do it, it would hurt her. And for me, no relationship can be more important than my mother. Her happiness will always be my primary concern. And anyway, Neelam had ambitions of her own to fulfill. Every time I broached the topic of marriage, she would laugh it off. She wanted to become the Number One heroine,” Govinda shared.

He added, “She wanted an intelligent, well-to-do, good-looking man as a husband. And I was anything but that. She belonged to the upper strata, and I was a dehati, coming from a lower-middle-class family. We were poles apart in every way. We probably would never have been successful as a married couple. And maybe, Neelam realised that. But the actual problems between her and me began when she started working more and more with other heroes. I was consumed with absolute jealousy and insecurity. I was scared that I would lose out on her totally. And then Aag Hi Aag and Paap Ki Duniya became hits. She started signing more films with Chunky, Sunny, Mithun, Chintu. I was very upset.”

‘I may get involved again, Sunita should be prepared’

In the throwback interview, Govinda also spoke about the time he publicly hid his marriage to Sunita. He shared, “My mother wanted me to officially marry Sunita – we’d had one ceremony in the mandir. For that matter, we were husband and wife. But I had not disclosed my marriage to Sunita publicly because I felt it would affect my career. Neither did Neelam know about it. She got to know only after a year. I probably did not tell her because I did not want to break this successful screen pair. And to be honest, to a certain extent, I did exploit my personal relationship with Neelam for professional ends. I played dirty with her.”

“Sunita loves me. She has changed herself totally for me. Her world revolves around me. And my family has accepted her. I’ve never hurt anyone intentionally. My involvements were not with the intention of hurting; I could have backed out of my commitment to Sunita. But I didn’t. For whatever reason, I had fallen in love with Sunita at one time,” Govinda shared, before stating that he had two marriages written in his kundali.

Many years ago, Govinda had said that Sunita should be prepared for him to cheat. He said, “Tomorrow, who knows, I may get involved again, and then, maybe I will marry the girl I get involved with. But Sunita should be prepared for it. Only then will I feel free. And there is a second marriage in my kundali. Well, I am a firm believer of destiny. What has to happen, will happen.”

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In January this year, Sunita hinted at Govinda having an affair. She said in an interview with MissMalini, “2025 was a disaster for me. My family life was disrupted. I was not happy with the things I was hearing about Govinda. There is an age to do certain things, and at 63 to hear these things, it is not good, especially when your kids are grown up. He must understand that family is family, and when you are in trouble, nobody stands beside you. They are only there for money. Once you stop giving the money, they will go. These days, girls come and struggle in the film industry. They need a sugar daddy to take care of their expenses. Shakal do kodi ka hai, par heroine banna hai (Their appearance is worthless, but they want to become a heroine). They then blackmail people.”

Today, Neelam Kothari is married to actor Samir Soni, and they have a daughter, Ahana. Govinda and Sunita Ahuja have been married for several years; they have two children, daughter Tina and son Yashvardhan.