Dharmendra & Hema Malini:

As a pair they were the most sought after ones back in the 70’s. They starred in almost 40 films together with atleast half of those turning out to be successful at the box office. Hema Malini found Dharmendra to be this raw handsome young man and Hema herself was of course forever the ‘dream girl’.

After working with each other in Sholay in 1975 which turned out to be the biggest hit of Bollywood later, the two grew fond of each other and gradually were in love before they even realized it. Gossip mongers of those times even reported that apparently Dharmendra was so possessive of his love that he never let his colleagues Jeetendra and Sanjeev Kumar even propose to her.

Dharmendra and Hema Malini had a full blown romance and eventually got married in 1980.

Guru Dutt & Waheeda Rehman:

Guru Dutt was a poet and hence sensitive and magical with words as well as a person but what was most striking about him was that he was a true genius in his own right. On the other hand, Waheeda Rehman was the ultimate epitome of beauty whose appeal cut across time and age.

If Waheeda was discovered and brought into the film world, credit for it also went to Guru Dutt who initially saw the spark in her. It was he who took her as his muse and both were paired together in films like Pyaasa, Kagaz Ke Phool, and Sahib Biwi Ghulam. But destiny had other plans for this romantic pair partly due to the fact that Guru Dutt was a married man and their affair took a different direction altogether. Waheeda decided to move on and created a name for herself in the industry.

This hurt the feelings of Guru Dutt for whom their split was too much to take. Mystery is till today surrounded with his premature death which took place in 1964 due to an overdose of sleeping pills apparently.

Dilip Kumar & Madhubala:

Dilip Saab might be together with Saira Banuji today but in the 1950’s it was classical beauty Madhubala who ruled his heart and mind. Dilip Kumar was known to be the ‘tragedy king’ and she was an actress par excellence who was forever in demand and the two were paired for the first time in Tarana in 1951.

Their love portrayed onscreen took little time before their affair began to take roots off screen as well. Apparently they both shared a wild and turbulent relationship that lasted all of eight years forcing their real life romance to be touted as the most melodramatic and also the most legendary in Indian cinema.

Though Dilip Kumar and Madhubala parted ways on a good note Dilip Saab could not stop longing for her. The two also gave us K Asif’s masterpiece inn the form of Mughal-E-Azam.

Yet one of Dilip Kumar’s famous quotes were “I love this woman and shall love her till my dying day.”

Dev Anand & Suraiya:

The evergreen actor Dev Anand had just about set foot in the Hindi Film industry when he fell for the charms of the magnetic Suraiya who had by then proved her credentials as an actress. It was on the sets of a film titled Vidya that Suraiya found Dev ‘cultured and handsome’.

Eventually in the course of the shoot for the film, it so happened that Dev Anand came to the rescue of the beautiful actress and saved her from drowning when the boat that they were in keeled over. From thereon Suraiya had set her eyes on Dev Anand the actor and human being. The pair also featured in movies like Jeet and Afsar which turned out to be not too successful at the box office and yet their personal love life moved on from strength to strength.

In fact at the peak of their affair Dev Anand even went down on one knee at the Taj Mahal with a diamond ring in hand. But things took an ugly turn when Suraiya’s grandmother learnt of this. Her uncle too forewarned the actor of unhappy consequences and so Suraiya was forced into making a tough decision and call off their relationship right then. No surprise then that Dev Anand has remained single since then. Cos first love is always the only love, isn’t it Dev saab?