Govind Namdev remembers crying for three months after his role was axed from Saudagar: ‘Had told everyone I’m working with Dilip Kumar, Raaj Kumar’

“I shot for 5-6 days. After the shooting was completed, I was informed that that the film was running at over four hours. Now, during the editing, it was brought down to under four hours. Then someone suggested that if they remove my track, another 15 minutes could be saved. This is how my entire character was removed,” recalled Namdev.

But the actor was not informed about the decision, and he frequently visited Ghai’s office for updates. “I frequented their office asking, ‘Dubbing nahi karva rahe?‘ They would keep saying, ‘Haan karenge karenge (Yes, we will do it).’ Then, the post-production work was also done. I went to Ashok ji, who looked after production work, and told him that I haven’t done my dubbing. He told me to come in the evening and when I went in the evening, he told me that since the film got quite lengthy, they cut out my character,” shared Namdev.

The actor, who had proudly told everyone that he is working with actors Dilip Kumar and Raaj Kumar, and director Subhash Ghai, was shattered by the news. He said, “I had done international-level theatre. I was the main actor, and A-grade artist from NSD. I had left behind that respect there, so it was so shocking for me. I was worried about what people would say about me.”

‘It took me three months to recover from this shock’

It took Govind Namdev three months to come to terms with the fact that his character was chopped from his debut film. He reminisced, “It took me three months to recover from this shock. I used to cry every time. I just couldn’t stop myself from crying. Even today when I think about it… My wife tried hard to make me feel better, but I just couldn’t do it.”

However, he soon bounced back and established himself as a villain in Hindi films. He starred in films such as Shola Aur Shabnam, Chamatkar, Aankhen, Satya, Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani, Wanted and Pukar, among others. He was most recently seen in Oh My God 2.