Govind Namdev revisits ‘traumatic’ experience of working with Subhash Ghai in Saudagar, director removed him from the film after shooting

Govind Namdev said that he had a 'traumatic time' after working with Subhash Ghai. He implied that he 'blacklisted' the director.

Govind Namdev was last seen in OMG 2.

Subhash Ghai’s 1991 film Saudagar was considered the biggest casting coup at the time as it starred Dilip Kumar and Raaj Kumar for the first and only time. Ghai took the credit for bringing the stars together as they were rumoured to be on not-such-great terms off-screen. However, while Ghai scored big with the audience for bringing the actors together, Govind Namdev, who was also a part of the film, felt that he was shortchanged here. In a recent interview, Govind said that it was a “traumatic time” for him as Ghai shot with him but later removed his character from the film altogether.

“That was a traumatic time for me,” Govind told Lehren Retro. “When I got the role, it was quite big and then he later chopped off the entire role in the final edit. By then, I had already told the entire world that I was working with Dilip Kumar, Raaj Kumar, Subhash Ghai. These are big personalities. I had told everybody about it. The shoot was also done,” he shared.

Govind Namdev said that when the dubbing of the film started, other actors were being called to dub their parts but he did not get a call from the director. The actor claimed that his part was pivotal to Saudagar as “the film started with it, and ended with it.” He said that the movie was supposed to be in flashback with his character in the beginning and the end, and he also appeared in pivotal moments.

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The actor said that Subhash Ghai had made a four-and-a-half-hour-long film and had to chop off portions to make it shorter. It was at that point that someone suggested to Ghai that he should get rid of Namdev’s character and jump straight into the story. “Someone suggested to him that you take this character out and he did that. I was in a lot of trauma then,” he said.

Namdev said that Ghai never spoke to him about it and he also decided to never work with the director again. “I never worked with him again. Neither did he call me, nor did I go to him for any work. If he had, then it would have been nice but I understand people’s limitations as well,” he shared. The actor said that he has “blacklisted” certain directors and will never work with them again.

Govind Namdev was recently seen in Akshay Kumar and Pankaj Tripathi-starrer OMG 2.

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