Season of peace: Govinda ends feud with David Dhawan

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This Diwali onwards, it’s been a great reunion time. First, Salman Khan mended fences with Arijit Singh, then Karan Johar and Kartik Aaryan announced a film together, and now old friends Govinda and David Dhawan have patched up too.

The duo was recently seen exhibiting their typical bonhomie at Tips’ supreme Ramesh Taurani’s Diwali party. Govinda had even shared a picture with the director and wrote, “80s aur 90s mein meri do biwiyaan thi. Ek Sunita aur ek David (In the 1980s and 1990s I had two wives. One was Sunita and the other was David)!”

In a recent interview with The Times of India, Govinda stated their “patch-up had already happened” and it was their second meeting. He insisted that people should “let bygones be bygones. We don’t want to rake up the past. Why mull over it? That’s not necessary. Filmy talk wasn’t a priority, but when that happened, we only spoke about the happy memories and those were plenty,” he said.

Govinda and David Dhawan’s last film was the 2009 disaster, Do Knot Disturb. But just before that, David had directed Partner, Govinda’s only super-hit in the millennium, though it also co-starred his other favorite, Salman Khan.

In 2015, Govinda had announced that he has distanced himself from his longtime friend and director. “No, I don’t want to work with David Dhawan as he didn’t stand by me during my bad patch,” he was quoted then by The Times of India. A year earlier, Govinda had explained why he was upset with David, revealing that he had given him the idea to remake Chashme Buddoor back in 2009, but the filmmaker had opted for Rishi Kapoor in Chashme Baddoor (2013), his successful remake. As Govinda had told News18, “When my secretary spoke with him on speaker I heard him say, ‘ChiChi (industry’s pert name for Govinda) has started questioning way too much. I no longer wish to collaborate with him.’”

“I never get upset with David because we have worked in so many films that we are used to quarrelling. But this time, we had a fight. I was like, ‘You didn’t even tell me’. “I feel, this is how the film industry works. Personally, even if I can’t work with you because your time isn’t right, I’d still like to maintain a relationship with you,” he had said.

In an interview with journalist Rajat Sharma of News18 in May this year, Govinda had said, “I don’t imagine his son (Varun) will also do 17 films with him. I had o idean what it meant to work on so many films with the same director. I didn’t even treat my family members the way I treated him. My brother is also a filmmaker, although I haven’t worked on 17 films with him.”

But Govinda forgets one film (which one would be interesting!), for their tally is 18 movies!

But now, we guess all’s well that ends well. Meanwhile, David has not spoken yet to the media about the patch-up. Interestingly, David’s last release was on OTT in 2020—his redux of Govinda’s and his 1995 super-hit, Coolie No. 1, with the same title and son Varun Dhawan. The film was a washout.

David Dhawan was an editor for long (the 1978 Saajan Bina Suhaagan was his hit debut) until he turned director with the 1989 Taaqatwar starring Sanjay Dutt and Govinda. Since then, his collaboration with Govinda was successful without exception in Swarg, Shola Aur Shabnam, Aankhen, Raja Babu, Coolie No. 1, Saajan Chale Sasural, Deewana Mastana and Hero No. 1. They had their first flop in Banarasi Babu (1998), but after that, Bade Miyan Chhote Miyan, Haseena Maan Jaayegi, Jodi No. 1 and Ek Aur Ek Gyaraah were also successful, though Kunwara and Kyokii Main Jhuth Nahin Bolta tumbled.

Some famous spats that happily ended

1. Aditya Chopra and Ajay Devgn
2. Anu Malik and Alisha Chinai
3. Lata Mangeshkar with Mohammed Rafi
4. Manmohan Desai and Kishore Kumar
5. Rajesh Khanna and R.D. Burman
6. Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan
7. Shankar (-Jaikishan) with Lata Mangeshkar
8. Sunny Deol and Shah Rukh Khan