Meet actress, once bigger than Sridevi, Madhuri; career derailed after being dumped by star kid, quit acting to become..

Actress-singer Vijayta Pandit has opened up on why she and actor Kumar Gaurav didn't become big stars despite their debut movie Love Story becoming a blockbuster. The 1981 film was a huge hit and cemented the two debutants as the next big thing in Hindi cinema. At the time, Vijayta Pandit was considered a bigger prospect than contemporaries like Sridevi and Jayaprada and juniors such as Madhuri Dixit.

In Love Story, she and Kumar Gaurav played star-crossed lovers, and they also developed a relationship off-screen. While the movie was a huge success, their romance off the sets took flight which irked Kumar Gaurav's father, Rajendra Kumar, as the latter didn't want them to be together.

Vijayta Pandit told Lehren, "After Kumar Gaurav got married, I did Mohabbat in which I was cast opposite Anil Kapoor. It was a female-oriented film, the audience also appreciated my work. But, it was an average film in terms of the box office. Definitely, it wasn't even close to Love Story."

She further mentioned, "I did a film with Sanjay Dutt and another with Rajinikanth as well but none of them was as successful because the audience was heartbroken because of the premature ending of our real-life affair."

She earlier told Lehren that she and Kumar Gaurav fell madly in love on the sets of Love Story but Rajendra Kumar was against this union, and wanted a "princess" for his "prince". She said, "He (Kumar Gaurav) was my first love. He used to be a very charming boy. Eventually, we fell in love. Rajendra Kumar guessed that we were in love, and he was against it. He told him, 'You are my prince, and I'll get you married to a princess, someone who belongs to an affluent family'."

Vijayta Pandit also recollected her mother telling Kumar Gaurav, "Bolo tum isse shaadi karoge". The actress was also briefly married to film director Sameer Malkan. Kumar Gaurav went on to marry Namrata Dutt, the daughter of Sunil Dutt and actress Nargis, and the sister of Sanjay Dutt.

After her marriage to composer Aadesh Srivastav in 1990, Pandit gave up acting to become a playback singer. She has since sung for films like Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992), Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa (1993), Saazish (1998), Dev (2004) and Chingaari (2006)

With inputs from IANS

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