When Sanjeev Kumar revealed his mother refused to accept Shabana Azmi as his wife due to religion: ‘I would have had to move out of the house’

However, the actor, born Harihar Jethalal Jariwala, was unlucky in love. The biography, ‘Sanjeev Kumar, the Actor We All Loved’, gives an insight into the personal life of the actor remembered for his roles in films such as Sholay, Koshish, Angoor, Khilona and Aandhi.

As per the book, Sanjeev Kumar had once professed affection for Shabana Azmi. The biography details an interview from 1979 with Stardust, where Kumar said that their relationship might have evolved into a marital alliance, had his mother not put his foot down. He said that if he had married Shabana, he would have had to move out of his house and that was unthinkable for him. “I knew Shabana for a longer period than I had known any other girl in films. Earlier, I had worked on stage with her mother Shaukat. When I first knew Shabana, she was not yet in films. What she felt for me that time must’ve been mere puppy love, but it could have culminated in an alliance with me if my mother had not put her foot firmly down. My mother, tolerant in other respects, was adamant about her refusal to accept a Muslim bahu—if I had married Shabana, I would’ve had to move out of the house and that’s something I’d never do,” he had said.

In the biography, Uday recounts his visits to Shabana Azmi’s house for Holi parties. He said that after Kumar’s death, while gathering his memorabilia, he found Shabana Azmi’s ‘affectionate’ letter among fan-mail that had been preserved carefully.

Before Shabana Azmi, there was another Muslim girl that his mother had objected to. The biography mentions his ‘first love’, where Kumar had once said that it was the first time he had fallen ‘seriously in love’. ” Hari said in an interview in 1973, “Till the age of 26, I have never touched a girl. The first time I first fell deeply and seriously in love, was around that time. I wanted more than anything to marry her. I would’ve married her. But she was a Muslim girl. If I was the youngest son of my mother, I would’ve said to hell with the world and married her… She has gone through hell raising four children without my father.”  While he had worked extensively with Kumkum and Nazima, there was much speculation that this could have been Saira Banu. His makeup artiste Sarosh Mody said in 1982, “Every woman whom Sanjeev loved and yearned for, ditched him, leaving him high and dry. His ego is terribly hurt. Sanjeev is suffering from some kind of a complex. Luck has never been in his favour. He loved them all. Saira, Nutan and Hema. Maybe with Saira, it was just an infatuation and he misunderstood her.”