Govinda accepts falling for ‘doll-like’ Neelam, says theirs was ‘pehle wala romance’: ‘Hum bawaal machate the’ | Bollywood News
4 min readNew DelhiMar 5, 2026 09:07 AM Govinda was one of the biggest superstars of the Hindi film industry in the 1990s and gave many consecutive hits at the box office. In the past few months, his wife Sunita has said that Govinda has been having an affair and while the actor has dismissed such allegations, rumours about him being in a relationship with actor Neelam Kothari in the 1980s and 1990s refuse to die down, even though it has been over three decades since the two shared any screen space together.
In a new interview with Siddharth Kannan, Govinda was directly asked if he was in love with Neelam and the actor accepted that they were close and he was attracted to the actor. “Dekhiye hum sab jitne youngsters, jo gaon type ka hote hain, unn sabhi ke liye goriyan boht achi lagti hain (See all of us village folk, we like fair women),” he said and added, “Yeh jo opposite attraction hai na, yeh hua karta hai. (This attraction for someone who is the opposite kind, this happens.) She was different and such a good girl. Aise lagta tha jaise doll hai. (She looked like a doll.)”
Govinda and Neelam became a hit on-screen pair after they appeared in Love 86, in 1986 and subsequently followed it up with hits like Hatya, Sindoor, Khudgarz among many others. Talking about Neelam further, Govinda shared that he was a fan of Neelam before he got a chance to work with her. “Doll type ki jo personality hai, voh usme thi aur mujhe aisa laga ki… Wow. Main inki picture dekh raha tha, seetiyan baja raha tha aur maine shayad hi socha tha ki main iske sath kaam karunga. (She had a doll-like personality. I thought… Wow. I was watching her films and I had not even thought I would work with her). She became my heroine and I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
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Govinda called Neelam “lucky’ and reminded everyone that they gave a lot of hits together. While he did not directly address if he had a relationship with Neelam, he implied that he had feelings for her. He said with a laugh, “Uss time pe… Abhi yeh jaise affairs hote hain, vaise toh hote nahi the. Hum bawaal machate the… Ho gaya, lag raha hai chal raha hai. (Back then, affairs were not like how they are today. We would make a lot of noise… We would think something is happening.)”
He added that romance in those days was just about looking at your beloved. “Pehle vala romance hota tha, voh dekhne maatr ka tha. Kitna acha kaam kar paye na hum log. Har film dekhiye… gaane superhit, filmein hit. (Back then, romance was about just looking at each other. We got to do such good work together. See every film was a hit, songs were hit.)” he said.
In a 1990 chat with Stardust, Govinda had confessed that he was in love with Neelam, and even broke his engagement with Sunita, whom he later married, because he wanted to be with Neelam. “We met so often and the more I got to know her, the more I liked her,” he said and added, “She was the kind of woman any man would have lost his heart to. I lost mine.” Govinda admitted the nature of his relationship and shared, “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.” He added, “I wanted to marry her. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
