Govinda destroyed his career by surrounding himself with pandits, David Dhawan poisoned his mind: Pahlaj Nihalani calls actor ‘nasamajh’

‘Salman Khan and David Dhawan made it look like they were obliging Govinda by casting him in Partner’

Pahlaj called Govinda naive and took an example of his film Partner to explain the same. He said, “Govinda is so naive that in Partner, David Dhawan wanted only Govinda to play that character, but it was claimed that David and Salman helped Govinda during his career slump. But Govinda got so emotional and woh itna nasamajh hai. They acted like they are obliging Govinda but they actually wanted only him to play that role.”

For the unversed, Govinda and David Dhawan were long-time collaborators and have given various iconic films to the industry. However, their equation became sour later, leading to a fallout. The 2007 Partner — which was a hit — was the last film they collaborated on.

‘David Dhawan poisoned Govinda against me’

Pahlaj also accused David Dhawan of poisoning Govinda’s mind and provoking him against Pahlaj and revealed that this is why they stopped working together. He said, “David Dhawan had filled Govinda’s mind with poison against me.”

Pahlaj shared that David was bitter against him as he thought he earned money for him in the 1993 film Aankhen, which starred Govinda in the lead. Pahlaj, however, argued that he was the producer of the film and it was also his story which was made into a feature film. He also shared that Anees Bazmee wrote the film’s dialogues and David Dhawan was the director, but claimed he was more like a ‘dummy director’.

‘David Dhawan would be absent on set for days while shooting my films’

He said, “The story was mine, screenplay I had written, dialogues were written by Anees Bazmee, and I would also record the songs and shoot them. So David was only there to shoot the scenes. In fact, he was even absent for 27 days while shooting the climax. He came to Mumbai to shoot for another film. I did all the leftover work. I shot most of the action sequences. In all our films together, he did this.”

When asked if he got upset with David’s behaviour, he said, “No, I wanted a dummy director. Though he got the director’s credit, but as a producer, I was a big name so I didn’t care.”

Govinda’s response to conspiracies

Speaking to ANI in February 2026, Govinda said in an interview: “Wealth and fame don’t spare anyone, and conspiracies like these don’t happen with everyone. I know a very well-known actor who was the victim of it, and now it’s me, though I am not as big as he is. I pray to God that he saves me from this problem, and I also pray for the welfare of my children. There has been a lot of struggle.'”

The views expressed in this interview are those of the speaker and do not reflect the official position of The Indian Express regarding the individuals or beliefs mentioned.