Bollywood veteran Naseeruddin Shah is perhaps the closest thing to a creative genius we have seen so far, but the one thing that outshines him is his marriage to fireball actress Ratna Pathak, who is equally witty and blunt about the faults in the industry as him.
However, it wasn’t quite easy for the ‘Mirza Ghalib’ actor to marry his soulmate, as he recently revealed in an interview with Humans Of Bombay. Shah said that it took him seven years to convince Ratna’s parents to allow her to marry him.
“Her parents were against it because I was married before and I was a drug addict. I was an ill-tempered man and all that sort of thing. But, she didn’t pay heed to any of that. In between, she went to drama school for three years. But we were practically living together. So when she moved in with me, it was like the most normal thing in the world.”
Shah revealed that it was love at first sight for him while acting in a play with film maker Satyadev Dubey, and they got closer during rehearsals:
“I just felt I’d like to know this person. Over the process of rehearsals, we got to know each other. I think she also liked what she saw. It’s been a great blessing because we have stood by each other through thick and thin. She has stood by me rather through thick and thin, through very difficult times, and through very good times. I think the main reason for that is because we have remained friends – that’s the most important thing.”
Gushing about the ‘Kapoor and Sons’ actress, Shah declared that he loved how Ratna had stuck by him through thick and thin, which had resulted in a beatiful partnership and friendship between the two:
“Ratna was a blessing for me. In hindsight, she probably deserved better—I had been married before and was a drug addict when I met her. In fact, her parents never approved of our match. But Ratna being who she was, never paid any heed to it. We never paid any heed to it. We knew we wanted to be together and that’s what we did. And that resulted in this beautiful partnership and friendship that we share to this day. I consider myself very lucky to have had Ratna with me through every thick and thin, and every sadness and happiness. It’s beautiful how we still find something new about each other every day, even after all this time–something more to love and cherish about the other person. More than anything else, that is what I live for.”
Leave a Reply