Bollywood's veteran actor Shatrughan Sinha recently stirred memories of a decades-old romantic saga by publicly wishing his former girlfriend, actress Reena Roy, on her birthday. This gesture peeled back the layers on one of Hindi cinema's most talked-about love triangles, involving Sinha, Roy, and his wife, Poonam Sinha. The actor has openly acknowledged that his relationship with Reena Roy continued even after he tied the knot with Poonam in 1979, a fact that caused immense emotional turmoil for all involved.
The Fateful Train Journey and a 14-Year Courtship
The story begins not in a film studio, but on a train. In 1965, a young Shatrughan Sinha, yet to become an actor, was traveling from Patna to Mumbai (then Bombay) to join the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). On this two-day journey, he met Poonam, who was still a schoolgirl, accompanied by her aunt. Sinha was instantly smitten, later admitting in his biography 'Anything But Khamosh' that he had "romantic notions" and was even playfully called a "cradle-snatcher" by friends for being drawn to someone so young.
Their connection, however, was not immediate. Years later, when Poonam won the 'Miss Young India' pageant in 1968 and ventured into films, their paths crossed again. They finally acted together in the 1971 film 'Dharti Ki God Mein', where sparks flew. This chance encounter on a train blossomed into a 14-year-long courtship, but it was far from smooth and was often interrupted by Sinha's rising stardom and other relationships.
Reena Roy Enters the Picture and a Painful Ultimatum
As Shatrughan's career soared in the early 70s, his most famous on-screen partnership with actress Reena Roy turned into a headline-making off-screen romance. The duo, hailed as a popular star pair, became the talk of the town. Meanwhile, Sinha's relationship with Poonam grew strained due to his other liaisons, leading him to break up with her in 1973 because he felt she was "too good" for him.
For the next few years, Sinha was in a very public relationship with Reena Roy. However, by the late 70s, both women presented him with an ultimatum: marriage. "My problem was not whom to marry but whom not to marry," Sinha confessed, adding he was in several "steady relationships" simultaneously. The decisive push came from his mother, who urged him to marry Poonam.
The London Trip and a Wedding Fraught with Tension
In a dramatic twist, just two days before his scheduled wedding to Poonam in 1979, Shatrughan Sinha was in London performing in a stage show with Reena Roy by his side. Composer duo Kalyanji-Anandji even announced his impending marriage to the audience, with Reena standing beside him, looking down. In a poignant act, it was Reena who drove him to the airport to catch his flight to Mumbai for the wedding.
"Till the last moment, I wanted to back out," Sinha told Stardust magazine. "The wedding was in Bombay, and I was in London. I caught the last flight which just about brought me in time for the wedding. Poonam was in a state, she thought I was backing out." The stress was so overwhelming for Poonam that she fainted during the wedding pheras.
A Relationship That Endured Beyond the Wedding
Despite the marriage, Shatrughan Sinha did not end his relationship with Reena Roy immediately. "I had to make a choice when I married Promi (Poonam) while I was still very involved with my co-star (Reena)," he stated. He explained his actions by saying, "It wasn’t as if I wanted to cheat on either but it takes time for a man to withdraw from an emotional situation."
This period was emotionally devastating for both women. Reena felt like "a toy to be used and cast away," while Sinha lived on a "perpetual guilt trip." The final break came when Reena, after years of waiting for public acknowledgment and even involving his elder brother, realized marriage was not forthcoming. She then moved to Pakistan and married cricketer Mohsin Khan in the 1980s, a union that later ended in divorce.
Meanwhile, Shatrughan and Poonam Sinha remained married, building a family with their twin sons, Luv and Kush, and daughter, Sonakshi Sinha. The recent birthday wish to Reena Roy shows that the echoes of this complex chapter from Bollywood's golden era still resonate today.
