Love hit Hema during Seeta Aur Geeta

Few outside Bollywood know that Dreamgirl Hema Malini had captivated not just Dharmendra, but Sanjeev Kumar too by her vivaciousness.

It was while the three stars were working in Seeta Aur Geeta that both the actors fell in love with Hema. While the feelings between Dharam and Hema grew afterwards, the South Indian actress couldn't reciprocate Hari Bhai's sentiments.

In fact, though Dharam was quite clandestine about his fondness for his heroine, Sanjeev Kumar was very vocal about his emotions on the sets. Finally, it was Hema's parents who put an end to his attempts to woo her. They invited him for a straight talk and made it clear that he stood no chance of marrying Hema since they wanted her to marry a suitable Iyengar man.

But that was not to be and the actress ended up marrying Punjab-da-jat Dharmendra instead of a South Indian belonging to her own caste.

Though Hema suffered from many reservations about doing the stunts and gawky scenes, particularly the song Haan ji haan maine sharaab pi hai... in which she had to act drunk, she never had to regret taking up the assignment. The film proved to be memorable for her for more reasons than just winning two great actors' fancy.

Hema, who played the characters of clever, street-smart Geeta and a docile, home-bound Seeta with equal elan in the film, was offered the roles by director Ramesh Sippy after the then No.1 heroine Mumtaz acted too pricey.

Mumtaz' loss was a great gain for Hema, who went on to become one of the most sought-after actresses after Seeta Aur Geeta was released.

She also won the Filmfare Best Actress award for her performance in the film, her first and the only award she ever won.