Gautam Rode and Jennifer Winger started dating rumours with their appearance on 'Saraswatichandra'. However, it was years later that the actor reacted to the speculations.
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Add BollywoodShaadis on GoogleJennifer Winget has been hogging the headlines for her second marriage to a Singaporean businessman, William Ishmael. However, this has also brought back the limelight to her previous relationships, including her rumoured affair with her Saraswatichandra co-star, Gautam Rode. And it was recently that he reflected on the buzz around their relationship.
In 2013, Sanjay Leela Bhansali decided to take a leap into television with his TV serial Saraswatichandra, based on the popular novel of the same name by Govardhanram Tripathi. However, more than his shift into the television industry, the lead pairing of Gautam Rode and Jennifer Winget became even more popular. Soon, rumours began to circulate that the duo not only shared strong on-screen chemistry but were also rumoured to be dating off-screen.
However, earlier in 2026, Saraswatichandra's male lead, Gautam Rode, finally reflected on what was really going on. In an old interview with Pinkvilla, he revealed that their relationship was extremely different from what people believed. So much so that they didn't speak much for the first year and a half of their shoot together. He recalled:
"We did not speak with each other for one and a half years. We only greeted one another and did not even exchange our numbers. Everyone was surprised by how good the chemistry was between the two of us. As in, she was in her zone, and I was in mine. We hardly spoke. She had gotten married recently at that time, and we used to do some readings for the scene and then go for the take, and then return."
In the same interaction, he revealed that he did not feel the need to build an off-screen bond for their on-screen chemistry to work. Gautam Rode revealed that both he and Jennifer Winget were professional actors and he didn't see how them being friends would improve their performance. While he admitted they formed a strong bond after the 1.5-year span, he revealed they didn't even speak much before then. He stated:
"We are professional actors, and even if we don't go to the other person or see their face, I can still work well with them, if they want to work as well. So I do not have any issues in that. It is my profession, and it is not compulsory that we have to be best friends. But yes, we became good friends after one and a half years. Then we used to laugh and say, ' Why didn't we speak earlier!"
In the same conversation, Gautam Rode revealed that during the initial months, they barely interacted beyond basic greetings, let alone were aware of what was going on in each other's lives. He pointed out that they had barely given any interviews together. He asserted that nothing was going on between them and said:
"We hardly gave interviews, and then when we became friends, everyone thought they had such nice chemistry, they must be great friends, there must be something going on between them. But there was nothing between us."
For the unversed, after Jennifer Winget's separation from her then-husband, Karan Singh Grover, it was rumoured that she was dating Gautam Rode. However, both actors denied the same. While Gautam Rode went on to marry his co-actor Pankhuri Awasthy Rode in 2018 and became parents to twins, a boy, Raditya, and a girl, Radhya, in 2023, Jennifer has recently tied the knot with William Ishmael.
What are your thoughts on Gautam Rode's revelations about his rumoured romance with Jennifer Winget?
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