Sanjay Dutt and Kumar Gaurav in a still from Naam. (Photo: Aryan Films)The Gen Z, and even a fair amount of millennials, might not be familiar with who Kumar Gaurav is, but after his debut film Love Story (1981), Kumar turned into a superstar overnight. His good looks and chemistry with lead female actor Vijayta Pandit was appreciated. However, post its release, there were hardly any hits that came his way until the successful Mahesh Bhatt directorial Naam (1986), which was penned by acclaimed screenwriter Salim Khan and bankrolled by Kumar Gaurav’s production house Aryan Films.
But Naam also saw its fair share of hiccups, as Kumar Gaurav’s father, the yesteryear star Rajendra Kumar, was apparently not comfortable with the narrative’s arc as it seemed to favour Sanjay Dutt’s bad boy figure a bit more. Mahesh Bhatt had even told Times of India as much. However, Naam went on to do extremely well at the box office.
Kumar Gaurav was the architect of this iconic film which was written by Salim Khan.With NAAM Sanju was reborn & Paresh shot into limelight. https://t.co/1ly0i1qkZE
— Mahesh Bhatt (@MaheshNBhatt) September 12, 2017
Post Naam’s success, there were reports that the friendship of Kumar Gaurav and Sanjay Dutt had fallen apart. But Dutt dismissed the rumours in an interview with Filmfare at the time, saying, “It’s utter nonsense to say my relationship with Bunty has changed after Naam. There can never be any question of one-upmanship with Bunty (Kumar Gaurav). If anything, our relationship has only grown stronger with the film. Changed for the better. Isn’t it strange that we started our careers together, had our first release together, rose to fame together, faced a slump in our careers at the same time, and have now managed to make a comeback together.”
“Bunty is one person I can shed my blood for. I love him immensely, not because he is my brother-in-law, that is a secondary issue…we don’t share any brother-in-law relationship — we are friends and we hope to remain friends,” Dutt had said. Kumar Gaurav is married to Dutt’s sister Namrata.
But many years later, after Sanjay married Manyata Dutt and when there were reports doing the rounds that the actor’s relationship had soured with his sisters Priya and Namrata, Kumar Gaurav told Times of India that they are still family, but don’t hang out together as frequently — “We don’t spend that much time together, as we did long ago.”
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Kumar Gaurav has no intentions of returning to Bollywood anytime soon and had mentioned the same in an interview to Hindustan Times back in 2013. He is the founder and CEO of neo-bank Cashaa.
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