What are some dark secrets of Govinda?

 Govinda was deeply unfaithful to his wife.

Despite getting engaged (and later married) at the time his career started in Bollywood he kept his marriage and child a secret for more than one year. During this time he had a storming affair with Neelam. He was almost ready to marry Neelam but Govinda's mother put her foot down. At one point Sunita and Govinda has regular fights over Neelam and Govinda decided to break off the engagement and told her to leave him. He even told Stardust magazine that if Sunita hadn't called him and coaxed him to come back he would have married Neelam. Interstingly he kept Neelam in dark about all this and introduced Sunita as his relative to Neelam!!

But he never really improved even after publicly recognising his marriage and child. Later on he had affair with Rani Mukherjee during the making of Had kar di aapne which again created tensions in his family.During that time, tabloids carried many gossip stories about celebrities, and it was reported that Govinda had gifted Rani many expensive items, including a luxury car and an apartment. Even recently when the news of Govinda's divorce were making the headlines and it was pointed out that Govinda and his wife are living separately, the fingers were pointed on Govinda for having an affair with a Marathi actress half her age.

In the early 90’s Govinda and his brother Kirti Kumar tried to launch a film Radha ka Sangam with Govinda and Divya Bharti. Govinda openly expressed his attraction towards Divya Bharti even though Kirti Kumar chucked her out of the film. They did worked in the film Jaan se Pyara.

Even in the chat with Kapil Sharma some time ago he and Shakti Kapoor agreed that they had affairs outside their marriage. He even shamelessly tried to defend his actions saying “Ek hi Life hai khul kar jiyo” (you have one life love it freely).

What went wrong for Govinda in Bollywood?

 Once Govinda signed 36 films in a single sitting, which indicates how successful he was in the 1990s. Then, what went wrong?

A still from Raja Babu (1994).

Possible reasons for Govinda’s decline:

1) Govinda's last worth-remembering work was Hadh Kar Di Aapne and Kunwara in 2000. Further films/roles were dull and not the kind of work Govinda was known for. Even though he gave a few more Filmfare Award-nominated performances post-2000, the audience wasn’t amused. Kyo Kii... Main Jhuth Nahin Bolta (2001) and Akhiyon Se Goli Maare (2002) were flops and that was the start of Govinda's decline.

2) Rejecting great films. Govinda rejected films like Taal (1999), Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001), Devdas (2002), etc. These decisions were conscious and did a lot of damage to Govinda’s career.

3) Joining politics. In 2003-04, Govinda joined politics. He had no film releases in 2004 and just 2 easily-forgotten releases in 2005. His disastrous political career almost ended his film career.

4) Anger. After getting a decent comeback with films like Bhagam Bhag (2006) and Partner (2007), Money Hai Toh Honey Hai (2008) was yet another film which may have given him more control. But, during the shoot of the film, he slapped a struggling actor named Santosh Rai. A case was filed against him which remained in the court for years. He had to finally apologize for his behaviour.

5) Distance from David Dhawan. Dhawan was probably the most influential man in Govinda's career. Dhawan's first film Taaqatwar (1989) starred Govinda and both later collaborated in 17 films. After Do Knot Disturb (2009), Dhawan never worked with Govinda. Govinda claimed in an interview that ‘Dhawan stopped working with him and had suggested others to do the same’.

6) Lack of entertaining cast. Throughout the 1990s, Govinda worked with many actors and comedians who were generally cast as his sidekicks or villains. These actors included Kader Khan, Shakti Kapoor, Johnny Lever, Asrani, Paresh Rawal, etc. This strong-cast repetition had made Govinda a super-star during the 1990s, which wasn’t effectively repeated in the 2000s.

7) Multiple rifts. With his successful years long gone, Govinda seemed frustrated and angry. During the 2010s, he had disputes with people. One of them with his own nephew, comedian-actor Krushna Abhishek. Govinda's wife Sunita Ahuja too assisted him in the dispute against Krushna and his wife Kashmira Shah. Govinda finally shared a stage with Krushna during an episode of The Drama Company (2017-18), but, his unnecessary rifts with multiple people haven’t ended so far.