Govinda: One day mummy predicted her own death to me

Govinda, 50, is not just an actor with great timing, but he is also a loyal human being with great simplicity. He may have had the reputation of being a latecomer, but he was also often conveniently misunderstood. He is religious and is proud of having his parents’ blessings that have given him the capability to look after his entire family. He knows that he has a big heart, but he now wants to build a great body.Over an hour-long conversation in his house over a cup of coffee and Parle-G glucose biscuits, he talks to Bombay Times about the uncanny predictions of his mother, how only Dilip Kumar understood him and his decision to make up for lost time with his wife Sunita. Excerpts:
How did you come into films?
My dad Arun was launched as a hero in 1940 by Mehboob Khan sahab in Aurat. We are originally from Gujranwala in Pakistan. My father was very successful and we had a bungalow on Carter Road, till one day when he produced a film and went into a heavy loss. We had to sell off our bungalow and moved to Virar. My dad’s nervous system had got shaken up and for about 15 years, he remained unwell. I have four sisters and an older brother, Kirti. When my mother was expecting me, she turned into a sadhu. She lived with my father in the same house, but the life of a sadhu. So for a year after I was born, my daddy did not take me in his lap, as he connected my birth with him losing his wife to becoming a sadhu. But over time, people would tell him how I was a khoobsurat kid and that I was a good boy and then, he started loving me. My brother taught acting in Roshan Taneja sahab’s institute. I was such a mama’s boy that no one imagined that I could come into the film line. She wanted me to do a bank job. It was my dad who encouraged me to come into films. He would say, ‘You can write so well, you look so nice, you can act, you should try in films. Why are you going around finding a job?’ So sometimes, without telling my mom, I would go to Rajshri Productions to see if I could get some work. Then one day, I requested mummy to allow me. She said, ‘No sharab, no cigarette. If you want to try for sometime, try, but I don’t want to see those things in life.’ I was very lucky. I went to acting institute and Roshan Tanejaji did not take the fees from me, Saroj Khanji taught me dance but did not charge me, Ram fight master taught me how to fight but did not charge me, as they all loved me seeing my work. I became a hero within a year at 21. In 1988, I launched our home production Hatya with Kirti as its director and from then on, never looked back till 2003.
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Talk about your mother?
She was a devi personality and my guru. My father was a devta aadmi too by nature, but had got detached from the film industry. He felt that due to his hard time, she became like that. Whatever she would ask me to do, I would always do it for her. She loved me a lot and also respected me as a son. Between the age of 14 and 21, she made me do the Gayatri Mantra 48 lakh times. I would sit for three hours every day doing it and people would laugh at me, saying God knows what she would make me into. I was most attached to my mummy. From a very young age, my dad did not have work, so mummy would look after the house. She would go and sing bhajans and do thumri performances to support the house. So right from when I was 13, I wanted to work to help her. I had opened a small restaurant called Govinda in Virar, but that did not work. She would pamper us fully as a mother and yet, we felt that she was beyond all worldly attachments. She was most strict with me and she had a lot of hope from me. Whatever she would predict, would happen for sure. I would find many dead snakes under my pillow. When I was 17, she said, ‘When you will be 21, you will do kamaal.’ I became a hero at 21. And in 50 days, I had signed 49 films. Whatever she said, would happen for sure. When my mother went out for programmes, it was our older sister Padma jiji (Krushna Abhishek’s mother), who would look after us. My mother predicted that she would die after delivering her daughter Arti. That cancer and Arti were growing in her stomach simultaneously and she did die. Then one day mummy predicted her own death to me. I was very hassled. Three months later, she died exactly when she had said she would.
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How badly were you affected by her death?
My mother died in 1996. She had once got hurt in 1993 and from then on only, I started doing Mahamrityunjaya Jaap for her and did them 60 lakh times. I was in Paris shooting 'Hero No. 1' and was at the peak of my career, but while shooting, I started crying on the streets. Some foreigners came and asked me why I was crying and I said, ‘My mom is not well.’ I knew she was going to die and the next day, I lost her. I cried so much that I tore 36 tissues of my chest and stomach and had to be hospitalised. I was not prepared and did not know how to live without her. I really struggled, but God helped me. Mummy had given me a Guru Mantra with the help of which I got okay and could come out of depression and I got to understand many things. Today, I feel she has come into me.
Did you ever start drinking?
When I was 34, for the first time I asked mummy, ‘Can I have a beer?’ I was in a disco and I felt like having it and, of course, she gave me a pravachan. She said, ‘Chi Chi, liquor was made for people who were tired or people who would feel cold. It was not made for indulgence. It is meant for weak people.’ She would say, ‘Look at your face, what a personality you have.’ I do drink, but occasionally.
You had a terrible reputation of being late on the set. What was the reason for that?
I used to do 5-6 shifts and would work 18 hours a day, with just 3-4 hours of sleep. I had a nervous breakdown twice and had to be hospitalised. Producers would be standing outside the hospital waiting for me. People are not sensitive or interested in your problems, they just want to do business with you. I have had a lot of tragedies in my house, so while I may have looked fit, inside I was going through a lot. But I knew that even if I was late, I needed to be in the right frame of mind, mentally and physically. There were also times when a producer may have gone to meet his girlfriend, but put the reason for delay on me. Dilip Kumar sahab was the only person in the film industry who could understand my problem. He was sensitive and could see that I was not okay and advised me to do comedy and yoga. My comedy films started working and like he had said, to a large extent, comedy helped me get out of my emotional problems. When I became a big star, there were times when I was late, but there were also times when I came on time and no one reported. There were people working towards getting me out of films by using the media to build my reputation as a latecomer. I too tried to manipulate the media, but finally people who were against me succeeded and by 2004, I had acquired a bad reputation of being a latecomer and had joined politics.
Talk about the tragedies you referred to?
I have seen 11 deaths in my family, including my first daughter who died when she was four months as she was a premature baby and my mother, my father, my two cousins, my jija and my sister. Then their companies had shut down, so they had no work. All their kids were brought up by me. There was a lot of emotional and financial pressure.
Did you feel over-burdened at any point?
Many people would come to meet my mother, so I would take time with mummy to meet her. Mother and son would sit on an aasan and talk once she was free. I once told her, ‘Mummy, let us distribute everything to our family and both of us get free.’ She said, ‘Arre Ram, Ram, Ram! I thought tum bahut bade aadmi banoge. People look after a whole city and nation, you are getting tired just looking after your family. Keep your heart big and ask more from God. Don’t get scared.’ And that became my attitude from that day. I consider myself very lucky. I consider the grace of God and the blessings of my mother, that I could serve my family. I feel very proud in my heart as a son. As a husband, ab thoda thoda ho raha hoon.
Talk about your wife Sunita?
I used to hug my mother and would never sleep without pressing her feet. Sometimes I would be so tired that while pressing her feet only, I would go off to sleep there. My mom and Sunita also have so many times given me a sponge bath in my sleep when I was tired. Sunita ne itna jhela hai mujhe. She would always surprise me by praising me and respecting me too much. As her husband, I feel sad that being a star wife, I could not give her what she deserved in her youth as a star wife. I didn’t make her roam around and enjoy as much as I should have. And I always say sorry to her. But I am lucky that we are both still young. What she likes the most about me is my honesty and she knows that my love for her that I had from the beginning still remains and has its own place.
Listen to the songs of Govinda on Gaana.com
What made you enter and then exit politics?
I have always listened to elders in my life. So when some senior people of the nation asked me to join, I did. But I felt that I didn’t belong to this world. And I came back.
Do you have friends in the industry?
There are no friends in the industry. But what is important is who has given you saath. And he is bigger than a friend. I feel that film line jaisi bhi ho, yeh saath deti hai. Mehboob Khan sahab, Dilip Kumarji and Salman Khan ne mera saath diya. I like Salman and I like him because woh badi hi imaandari se saath deta hai.
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