‘Love story with Aadesh Shrivastava was way better than than my original love story’: Vijayta Pandit

Vijayta Pandit, sister of actor-singer Suklakshna Pandit, and cousin of popular music composer duo Jatin-Lalit, found a common music background with Aadesh Shrivastava when they met in the US during her show. “We met in America. I was there for a show with my family. Then we just fell in love, he proposed to me, and spoke to my parents. That’s how my real love story began. It was a great love story,” said Vijayta when she appeared as a guest on the latest episode of popular singing reality show Indian Idol.

She added that her love story with Aadesh turned into a “sad story” after he was diagnosed with cancer, and eventually succumbed to the disease in 2015. “But still, he is never far away from me. He is always with me,” said Vijatya, adding his death “really hurts” her even today. “He was a great person, a very nice husband, and so talented, as you all know. She was a very good singer and composer. It’s very rare to find so many skills in one person. I was very lucky.”

Vijayta Pandit tied the knot with Aadesh Shrivastava in 1990. After the marriage, Vijayta quit acting and gave birth to their sons Avitesh and Avinesh. However, before she met Aadesh, she dated her first-ever co-star, Kumar Gaurav. A lot of producers wanted to sign the real-life couple after the success of Love Story, but that faced opposition from Gaurav’s father and veteran actor Rajesh Kumar.

“Rajendra ji got me removed from all the films. He is the main person who didn’t let me work with Bunty (Kumar Gaurav). All the producers would say they want to cast Bunty and me; it is a hit pair. But Rajendra ji would say, ‘Heroine se picture nahi banti hai (a film doesn’t become a hit because of a heroine), it is a hit because of the hero.’ He would suggest other actresses like Poonam Dhillon, Padmini Kolhapure, and Rati Agnihotri instead,” revealed Vijayta in a 2024 interview with Lehren Retro.

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“If we continued to work together, we would have succeeded. People wanted to see us together after the success of Love Story,” she added. Vijayta also claimed that Rajesh “brainwashed” his son into marrying his best friend and contemporary Sanjay Dutt’s sister Namrata Dutt. They have two daughters — Saachi and Siya Kumar.