New Delhi: Among the many romances of Bollywood in the 1970s, Reena Roy and Shatrughan Sinha’s is one of the most talked about. In fact, their love saga continues to hold interest till today. So much so, that when Sonakshi Sinha made her debut, her uncanny resemblance with Reena Roy was alluded to her being the love child of Shotgun and Reena.
Roy, whose name was Saira Ali before she started acting, touched upon their story in Sunday’s episode of ‘Indian Idol’ where she had come along with another yesteryear actor, Jaya Prada. Introducing Roy, the show host Aditya Narayan said, “Chahe mitr ho ya shatru, koi inse attract hue bina nahi reh paaya (Be it a friend or a foe, there’s none who wasn’t attracted to her).” Narayan used the Hindi word ‘shatru’ or enemy as a pun for Sinha, who is lovingly called ‘Shatru’ or ‘Shotgun’.
Later, Roy was shown an old clip of Shatrughan Sinha on ‘Indian Idol’, where he appreciated the yesteryear screen queen for her dance. He even told his wife Poonam Sinha who was sitting beside him to not stare at him. In reply, Poonam threatens to see the actor at home, evoking laughter from the audience.
“First of all, Sinha is a really bad dancer. So those female actors who could dance, be it Jaya ji (Prada), Rekha ji or me, were all fairies from heaven for him,” Roy said reacting to the clip, adding, “Aur yeh sacche patni-vrata hain toh inhe disturb na kiya jaaye (And he’s truly dedicated to his wife. So we needn’t disturb him)”.
In another clip, director Subhash Ghai claimed that Shatrughan Sinha didn’t like Reena Roy “at all” in ‘Kalicharan’ but after the film became a hit, she was the only one that “Sinha liked a lot”. Reacting to the claim, Roy said, “He’s lying. He fancied me”.
In Sinha’s memoir, film producer Pahlaj Nihalini revealed that Roy and Sinha were emotionally involved with each other. According to reports, Roy had given Sinha an ultimatum to make up his mind and marry her or else she would get married to someone else in eight days.
According to a report in ETimes at that time, Sinha was already married to Poonam Chandiramani. After ‘Hathkadi’, Nihalini wanted to cast Roy, Sinha and Sanjeev Kumar in his next film. But Roy refused his offer and said that she would do the film only if Sinha made up his mind. If he didn’t marry her, she would get married to someone else in eight days.
Sinha could not marry her. When Nihalini conveyed the message to Sinha, he was in tears. He called her up and cried like a baby because he was emotionally involved with her, Nihalini was quoted. The film producer also revealed in the memoir that this was the first time he saw Sinha cry. It was then that the producer told Sinha to let her go and get married.
Roy then got married to Pakistan cricketer Mohsin Khan and moved to the neighbouring country. Later, the couple got divorced and Roy moved back to India. The couple has a daughter, Sanam Khan.
In an interview with Firstpost, Roy said that this is the co-incidence of life. “Sometimes this happens. For instance, Jeetu ji‘s (Jeetendra) mother and her mother looked like twin sisters,” she was quoted as saying.
Reena Ji ne kholi pol apne co-stars ki ek fun game mein!
Dekhiye inhe Indian Idol 13 ke #IdolJayaJi&ReenaJi special episode mein! This Sat-Sun raat 8 baje, sirf #SonyEntertainmentTelevision par!#IndianIdol13 #IndianIdol pic.twitter.com/gaGi9426Gz
— sonytv (@SonyTV) March 12, 2023
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