This week, my Instagram feed staged an unscheduled revival of a Bollywood relic: Govinda. No, nobody’s rewatching Coolie No. 1. The current saga involves Govinda the husband, starring opposite Sunita Ahuja in a divorce-but-not-really storyline that has more twists than the man’s dance moves from the ’90s. And it’s easily funnier than his ancient movies.
“Beti ki umar ki ladki lekar ghoom raha hai, shame on him (He’s walking around with a woman his daughter’s age),” Sunita told the paparazzi in a viral video. She then upgraded the insult to “sugar daddy”.Her outburst came right after fresh airport photos of Govinda and Komal Rani Swarnkar, his co-star in his latest film, Roopa, went viral on social media. The two were also seen posing together and greeting paparazzi as they returned from a promotional trip.
“Usse sharam ana chahiye mujhe nahi (he should be ashamed, not me),” Sunita snapped.Who could resist the might of such words? Creators on Instagram rushed to recreate the viral moment. Karan Sareen was first on the scene.Donning a deep maroon t-shirt, a bold red lip, and a surprisingly good blow-dry wig, he recited Sunita’s lines word-for-word.“She’s an icon, a legend and she is the Moment,” said the caption.The comments were full of laughter emojis and support for Sunita. “Broooooo You are More Sunita ji than Actual Sunita ji,” said one.In the Viral Spiral of the Govinda-Sunita saga, the pair have been dubbed ‘India’s Kim-Kanye’. Their dirty laundry is being aired out via reels and pap videos, and Instagram is ready with not just popcorn, but analyses and thinkpieces. Here, the tone of an argument often matters more than the words do.After Sunita reportedly filed a divorce petition at the Bandra Family Court last year, citing adultery and cruelty on Govinda’s behalf, the tea simmered quietly for months. Now, the pot is boiling over.Content creator Kavita has also jumped on the wagon, recreating Sunita’s viral remarks with her own flair. She opted for gigantic glasses, a big bindi, and an accent out-doing the original.“That one ‘Hero No. 1’ wife on my feed,” read the text on the reel, while everyone in the comments gushed about the vocal similarity.“Bhai voice ? Mujhe laga audio use kiya (The voice? I thought it was the original audio),” the top comment read.As they often do with celebrity divorces, people are digging up older clips of Sunita.“Govinda killed her innocence,” reads the text on a reel posted Monday, showing an early video of Sunita sharing how she met Govinda. The video got over 1 lakh likes. Clearly, Sunita has more than a few supporters.There is something to be said about ‘innocence’ here, though. A lot of the hate Sunita gets is because she refuses to be delicate, meek, submissive. Videos blaming Govinda for her loss of a supposed ‘innocence’ seek to impose a traditional femininity on Sunita. See, she was a nice, good, beaming girl once, goes the argument. She deserves our sympathy!
