‘Sanjeev Kumar had taken a separate flat to eat non vegetarian food because it wasn’t allowed in his house,’ recalls Sachin Pilgaonkar

Sachin further recalled memories from those days when veteran stars would get together to eat and drink until the wee hours of the morning. “So he would order paya, nihari. Sanjeev Kumar, Shammi kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Randhir Kapoor and me, we would all eat together there. The paya had to reheated 4-5 times because we would continue drinking till 5 am and then we would eat the paya. We would eat it with those bakery naans and enjoy,” he recalled.

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In an earlier chat with Filmfare, actor Anju Mahendroo also recalled Sanjeev Kumar’s love for non vegetarian food. “Hari (Sanjeev Kumar) was a foodie. For him everything was about food. Despite being a Gujarati Brahmin, he loved non-vegetarian food. And unless it was at someone’s home, he wasn’t comfortable eating it. So he’d come home and we’d have dishes made for him,” she shared.

Veteran actor Moushumi Chatterjee also spoke about Sanjeev’s love for food in a 2019 chat at FTII and shared, “Haribhai used to love non-vegetarian food but he couldn’t eat it at home. He used to come anytime to my house and even if my husband and I were leaving for a party, he would come and say, ‘I’ve brought films, if you don’t mind, fridge mein non-veg hai kya?’”

Sanjeev Kumar is remembered for his work in films like Sholay, Aandhi, Khilona, Angoor among others. He passed away in 1985 at the age of 47.