Govinda Recalls Walking Into Narmada River After Mother’s Death, Reveals the Advice He Once Gave Salman Khan

Govinda has spent decades being remembered for his comic timing, uninhibited dancing and some of Hindi cinema’s most colourful performances. In a recent interview, however, the actor looked beyond that familiar screen image and revisited two deeply personal chapters: the grief that overwhelmed him after his mother’s death and a candid conversation in which he says he encouraged Salman Khan through a difficult phase.

Speaking to ANI, Govinda recalled entering the Narmada River after his mother, Nirmala Devi, died in 1996. Consumed by grief, he said he believed that by going farther into the water he might somehow meet her again.

When asked whether he had been suicidal at the time, Govinda replied, “Kind of,” while explaining the extraordinary attachment he had to his mother.

The same conversation also offered a very different memory: Govinda’s account of seeing Salman Khan struggling emotionally and giving his friend unusually direct advice about his health, appearance and future as a leading man.

Taken together, the recollections reveal something more substantial than two isolated anecdotes. They show Govinda reflecting on how personal pain changed his understanding of family, success and what it meant to help someone else through a difficult period.

Govinda says his mother’s death left him feeling everything was over

Govinda has repeatedly spoken about the enormous influence his mother had on his life.

Nirmala Devi, an actor and Hindustani classical vocalist, died in 1996. In the ANI conversation, Govinda described the loss as a period of “tremendous pain” in which he felt that everything had effectively come to an end.

That grief eventually brought him to the Narmada River.

Govinda recalled believing that if he went farther into the water, he would meet his mother again.

“So, I went into the river,” he said.

The remark should be understood in the context in which Govinda himself presented it. This was his retrospective account of an intensely distressed period following a bereavement, not a casual anecdote about his past.

When the interviewer asked whether he had been trying to end his life, Govinda described it as “kind of” the case and connected his state of mind to how deeply attached he had been to his mother.

An encounter at the river became a turning point

Govinda’s recollection did not end with him entering the water.

He said a sadhu called out to him and approached him. Govinda remembered the man as Ram Kundal.

The interaction interrupted what he was doing and forced him to reconsider the direction in which his grief was taking him. According to Govinda, he subsequently came to understand that he had responsibilities towards his children and needed to continue living for them.

The emotional recovery wasn't immediate.

Govinda said it took roughly 10 to 15 days for him to begin emerging from that state of mind.

That detail gives the story necessary context. The Narmada incident was not presented by Govinda as a dramatic standalone event; it was part of a broader period of severe grief through which his understanding of his responsibilities gradually changed.

His definition of ‘heroism’ changed after the loss

Govinda also connected the experience to the way he eventually began looking at his career.

By the time his mother died, he was already one of Hindi cinema’s major commercial stars. But in retrospect, he said films, acting and conventional notions of being a “hero” became less important to him than fulfilling what his mother had wanted for him.

Govinda described his greatest achievement as being able to serve his family and mother and fulfil the dreams she had imagined for him when he was young.

That perspective offers a useful way of understanding another story Govinda shared in the same recent round of interviews—this one involving Salman Khan.

Govinda says Salman Khan was ‘going through a lot of pain’

Govinda recalled a period around the time he and Salman were preparing to work together on Partner, David Dhawan’s 2007 comedy.

According to Govinda, Salman was experiencing considerable “pain and distress” and had become withdrawn.

Govinda said he decided to have a personal conversation with him.

His message was essentially that Salman had spent enough time looking outward and needed to start looking within himself.

Then came the advice that makes the anecdote particularly memorable.

Govinda told Salman that although he was a hero, he did not look like one at that moment.

The comment sounds harsh when isolated from the rest of the conversation. In Govinda’s account, however, it was intended as encouragement rather than an insult.

Govinda used his own 114-kg weight as an example

Govinda wasn't presenting himself as the physically perfect star while criticising Salman.

He said he weighed around 114 kg at the time and had recently emerged from politics.

His point was that their career situations were different.

Govinda believed he could transition towards comedy and character-oriented work, but Salman was still positioned as a conventional Hindi-film leading man.

He therefore told Salman that he looked unhappy and sad and needed to come out of that state.

Govinda advised him to exercise for two or three hours a day and work on himself physically.

It was blunt advice, but Govinda says it came from his belief in what Salman could become.

‘Look at Dharmendra’

Govinda then invoked Dharmendra.

He told Salman that, after Dharmendra, he saw him as someone blessed with the family, appearance and personality required to project the aura of a traditional Hindi-film hero.

That comparison is revealing because Govinda wasn't simply telling Salman to lose weight.

He was talking about screen presence.

According to his recollection, he believed Salman possessed something that could not easily be manufactured: the ability to walk into a room or appear on screen and immediately register as a movie star.

Govinda says he predicted Salman could dominate for another decade if he harnessed that potential.

“He did it,” Govinda later said while reflecting on what happened next.

That last part should still be attributed correctly.

Salman’s subsequent career trajectory is a matter of public record, but Govinda’s claim that his advice anticipated or influenced that trajectory is Govinda’s personal recollection, not something that can independently establish cause and effect.

Partner became a major chapter in their professional relationship

The two actors eventually appeared together in Partner, directed by David Dhawan and released in 2007.

The comedy paired Govinda and Salman with Lara Dutta and Katrina Kaif and became one of the most recognisable collaborations between the two actors.

But Govinda’s latest recollection presents their equation as something that extended beyond what audiences saw on screen.

He portrays himself not merely as Salman’s co-star but as someone willing to tell his friend something uncomfortable when he believed Salman needed to hear it.

The story also complicates the tendency to reduce long Bollywood relationships to whether two actors are currently making films together.

Their professional paths changed after Partner, but Govinda has previously described his friendship with Salman as extending beyond whether they work together. In a 2010 interview, for example, he said their friendship went “far beyond the professional.”

Two stories connected by the same idea

On the surface, Govinda entering the Narmada River after his mother’s death and Govinda advising Salman Khan about his career have little to do with one another.

One is an intensely private account of bereavement.

The other is a story about friendship between two movie stars.

But Govinda’s own recollections connect them through a common theme: how someone responds when personal pain begins overwhelming everything else.

After losing his mother, Govinda says another person intervened at a moment when he could not see beyond his grief.

Years later, he remembers trying to do something—under very different circumstances—for Salman.

That doesn't make the experiences equivalent.

It does, however, explain why the strongest version of this story isn't simply “Govinda told Salman he didn't look like a hero.”

The larger story is about what Govinda says he learned from his own lowest period and how he subsequently came to think about family, friendship and stardom.

The Celebrity Hour Take

Govinda’s latest interview is most valuable when the emotional recollections aren't converted into sensational headlines.

The Narmada episode is particularly sensitive.

The striking detail is that one of Hindi cinema’s biggest stars once walked into a river believing he might reunite with his mother. But the more meaningful part of Govinda’s account comes afterwards: he says the experience eventually forced him to recognise the family and responsibilities that remained in his life.

That perspective appears again, in a much less severe context, in the Salman Khan anecdote.

Govinda didn't tell Salman simply that he needed a better body.

According to his recollection, he saw somebody who looked emotionally defeated despite possessing everything necessary to command the screen.

His advice was therefore both physical and psychological: exercise, stop looking outward, and recover the confidence that makes people see a hero.

Whether that conversation materially changed Salman’s career cannot be established from Govinda’s testimony alone. Salman’s later success involved films, filmmakers, audience choices and many other factors.

But the anecdote reveals how Govinda remembers his role in the friendship.

There is also an irony here.

Govinda—the performer whose public identity was built around laughter, dance and extraordinary energy—is describing periods when neither he nor Salman felt anything like the personas audiences associated with them.

That gap between the star people see and the person behind it is what gives these recollections their real value.

Not the blunt line.

Not the celebrity names.

The vulnerability behind them.