Rajendra Kumar Was A Very Money-Minded Person

New Delhi:

Vijayta Pandit made her Bollywood debut in the 1981 film Love Story opposite Kumar Gaurav. During the filming, the duo fell in love and started dating. In her latest interview, the yesteryear actress revealed that Kumar Gaurav’s father, the late actor Rajendra Kumar was a “very money-minded man”. He wanted his son to marry a wealthy girl. As a result, the couple broke up and moved on in their lives. While Vijayta Pandit got married to music composer Aadesh Shrivastava, Kumar Gaurav got married to Sanjay Dutt’s sister, Namrata. 

“I don’t think he suffered. We both were in love and his family was against it. They wanted to move Bunty’s focus from me. One of his sisters would study with Namrata Dutt. She used to bring Namrata home and they started pushing them to know each other. They thought she was better than Vijayta. The family pressured him so much that eventually Namrata and Bunty came close. They thought she was Sunil Dutt’s daughter and was wealthy, so she was a better option for Kumar Gaurav, ” Vijayta Pandit said in a chat with Indian Express. 

She added, “His family thought I was not as rich as they were. Money was the main reason why they were against the relationship. They wanted him to get married to a wealthy girl. Rajendra Kumar was a very money-minded man. He wanted his son to marry a rich girl. He thought we were not up to that level of being rich. But we were well-to-do, not as rich as him.”

The actress further revealed that she put her career on hold for her relationship with Kumar Gaurav. She said, “I wanted to work. I was getting offers for a lot of films. But I was thinking of getting married. Bunty (Kumar Gaurav) used to ask me why I wanted to work. He said, ‘Tum mere ghar ki aur meri heroine bano, you don’t have to work.’ He said that we were getting married and he was going to work, so I didn’t need to. He knew that his father was getting me removed from films.”

Vijayta Pandit shared that Kumar Gaurav was deeply in love with her. The actress recalled an incident when she danced with a school friend at her birthday party and Kumar Gaurav got so jealous that he punched a glass and injured his hand. She said, “Bunty was very faithful to me. He loved me immensely. No one would have ever thought that he would ditch me. Once I had thrown a birthday party at a shack close to my house, and Bunty had also come. I was just talking to a school friend and also danced with him. That time, Bunty injured his hand by punching a glass at the shack. My brothers got scared, and he said, ‘I can’t see this, why was she dancing with him?’ He was so possessive.” 

Kumar Gaurav got married to Namrata Dutt in 1984. The couple share two daughters – Saachi Kumar and Siya Kumar. Vijayta Pandit’s marriage to Aadesh Shrivastava took place in 1990. They have two sons – Avitesh Shrivastava and Anivesh Shrivastava. Aadesh died in 2015 due to cancer.