Madhuri Dixit and Govinda: In Bollywood, every star has a journey with missed chances, unexpected turns, and moments of luck. Recently, veteran producer Pahlaj Nihalani walked down memory lane and shared a rather dramatic chapter from Madhuri Dixit’s early career.
Nihalani revealed how Madhuri Dixit, one of Hindi cinema’s most celebrated actresses almost lost some big opportunities because she didn’t want to work with a newcomer, Govinda.
Nihalani, who produced several successful films in the 1980s and 1990s, recalled the time when Madhuri was still struggling to find her place in the industry. He said he had first cast her opposite Govinda, who was also just starting out then.
But, according to him, Madhuri wasn’t keen on sharing the screen with a newcomer. “She kept refusing films with him,” Nihalani remembered.
This decision didn’t sit well with him. He replaced her with actress Neelam in those projects. Ironically, many of Madhuri’s films during that period didn’t work at the box office, while Nihalani’s productions, without her, turned out to be major hits.
“All my three films became golden jubilees,” he said.
But the story didn’t end there. Nihalani went on to say that Madhuri’s then-secretary, Rikku Rakesh Nath, often made excuses on her behalf and backed out of his offers. Frustrated by this, Nihalani even described himself as having “court martialled” her from his projects.
Yet, despite the tension, destiny brought them together in a different way.
At one point, the industry was going through a slump. Piracy was on the rise, and there hadn’t been a proper mahurat (traditional film launch ceremony) for months. That’s when Rikku Nath came to Nihalani, reportedly in tears, asking him to support Madhuri’s career by at least doing the mahurat clap for her films.
Nihalani agreed, and this turned out to be a turning point not just for Madhuri but also for the industry’s morale.
He revealed that he performed the mahurat for three of Madhuri’s upcoming films, where she starred opposite big names like Anil Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, and Chunky Panday. These events, he said, created a fresh buzz in Bollywood.
Still, Nihalani admitted that despite all this, he didn’t interact much with Madhuri directly at that time. Most of the discussions were handled by her secretary. He did recall seeing her in his office when she came with her parents, waiting patiently to meet him while he was busy shooting.
“She sat there for two days with her family. But I couldn’t give her time because I had no film for a heroine then,” he said.
Eventually, he did speak with her and even helped get Rikku appointed as her secretary. However, that decision later created its own share of complications.