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Neelam says she was never in a relationship with Govinda: ‘Link ups were part of the whole game, no one to clarify’

Neelam said that actors were linked up in those days and since there weren't many ways of communicating with the fans, the actors couldn't issue any clarifications.

Govinda and Neelam starred in many films during the early days of their career.

Neelam Kothari appeared in some of the most popular films across the 1980s and 1990s and like many stars in that era, she was also quite used to hearing rumours about herself. In a recent interview, when Neelam was asked about her rumoured relationship with her frequent collaborator Govinda, the actor finally put an end to all those rumours. Neelam said that she was not in a relationship with the Coolie No 1 actor.

Talking to Hauterfly, Neelam said, “I think link ups was part of the whole game. There was no one to clarify. They just printed whatever they felt like and to be honest I feel like in those days we were scared of the press. Because it was the power of the pen and it was just part of it. If you did more than 2-3 films, it was just understood that… (you were dating).”

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In a 1990 interview with Stardust, Govinda had said that he was in love with Neelam and at one point, even broke off his engagement with Sunita because he wanted to be with Neelam. He said, “I couldn’t stop praising her. To my friends, to my family. Even to Sunita, to whom I was committed. I would tell Sunita to change herself and become like Neelam. I would tell her to learn from her. I was merciless.” He claimed that after a fight, he was ready to call it quits with Sunita. “I asked Sunita to leave me. I broke off my engagement with her. And had Sunita not called me after five days and coaxed me into it again, I would probably have married Neelam,” he said and added, “I wanted to marry her. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.” Soon after, Govinda married Sunita.

Neelam is now married to actor Samir Soni. In the same chat, she spoke about Samir and said, “Samir is a very matured, grounded , practical person. He is someone who has a solution for everything. If I have a serious problem, Samir is my go-to person because his way of thinking is very sound and he is practical.”

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