The recent noises about Love Jihad have again brought the focus on the Hindu-Muslim divide, this time, in the matters of heart. When within the two communities also we find eyebrows raised, if the caste is different, it is almost blasphemy to imagine an inter-religion marriage, let alone a love affair.
However, in Bollywood , there have been many instances of marriages between artistes of different faiths, due to Cupid doing his job well !
Admittedly, the number of such couples was very less in earlier years that now. These stories are not having fictional characters , but real life flesh-and-blood individuals choosing to marry a person of different religion.
This makes them quite brave, irrespective of the period in which they decided to go ahead.
Let's begin at the beginning.
In the Thirties, the actress-singer- composer and producer Jaddan Bai was a popular name in the fledgling Hindi cinema industry. She married thrice and her last husband was Uttamchand Mohanchand, a devout Saraswat Brahmin, who converted to Islam and was named Adbul Rashid.
The Forties saw another Muslim film and theatre actress and dancer marry a Hindu. Born as Sahibzaadi Zohra Begum Mumtaz-ullah Khan, Zohra was an accomplished ballet dancer and singer. She was one of the heroines of Neecha Nagar, by Chetan Anand, the first film to have won an international award. She was part of the IPTA too. She came into contact with Kamleshwar Sehgal , scientist, painter and dancer of Indore, who was from the Radha Soami sect.
The Fifties case is that of Zubeida Begum. She was an actress, who had starred in the first ever talkies Alam Ara, after having a successful stint in the silent era. She acted in many mythological films and made a great pair with Jal Merchant. She married the King of Jodhpur, Raja Hanwant Singh, by converting to Hinduism, taking the name of Vidya.
The most celebrated inter-faith couple was however, Nargis and Sunil Dutt who married in 1958. This was probably the first of the many second generation inter-faith marriages to occur, Nargis being the daughter of Jaddan Bai and Uttamchand Mohanlal.
Playing his mother in Mother India, she was saved in a fire accident by Sunil Dutt by risking his life. The two go close and married, making Nargis a second-generation actor to have tied the knot to a person of different faith. At this point of time, both were celebrated stars and this became one of the most talked about marriages in Hindi filmdom. Nargis changed her name to Nirmala after marriage.
The Seventies saw many such cases, as the society was gradually coming out of the orthodox mindset.
Waheeda Rehman , a Muslim actress married Kanwaljeet , a businessman and her co-actor inShagoon ( 1964). Waheeda was a very popular and successful actress, having portrayed a lot of varying roles and in the 70s, she had started to play mother to younger actresses ( Phagun of 1973 saw her playing mother to Jaya Bhaduri). In 1974, she married her beau.
The list of Bollywood celebrities in later years is a who's who of the industry.
The list is endless with the second and even third-generation inter-faith marriages !
The first third -generation case is that of Sanjay Dutt ( son of Nargis and Sunil Dutt) who wed Manyata (actually called Dilnawaz Sheikh). Saif Ali Khan ( son of Sharmila and Mansoor) married twice, both times inter-faith: to Amrita Singh and Kareena Kapoor. Soha , his sister married Kunal Khemu.
Both the Irani sisters' descendants Farhan ( son of Honey and Javed ) and Farah ( daughter of Menaka and Kamran) were second-generation spouses as when Farhan married Adhuna Bhabhani and Farah tied the knot with Shirish Kunder.
The Khans also have Hindu wives : Shahrukh-Gauri, Aamir-Kiran, Arbaaz-Malaika , Sohail-Seema, Farah-Shirish and Zayed-Mallika Parekh.
Some more such couples: Sunil Shetty-Mana Qadri, Atul Agnihotri-Alvira Khan, Urmila matondkar-Mir Mohsin Akhtar, Zarina Wahab-Aditya Pancholi, Ritesh Deshmukh-Genelia D'Souza, Manoj Bajpai-Shabana Raza , right down to Nawazuddin-Anjali !
Almost all the major actors of the industry have found love outside their faith and married, even if it has lasted only a few years. Hritik-Suzanne, Raj Babbar-Nadira and Aamir-Reena are cases in point.
With the floodgates getting opened, more such marriages continue to happen in tinsel town, but it was the unflinching love and tenacity of these pioneers of inter-faith marriages which set the ball rolling.
However, in Bollywood , there have been many instances of marriages between artistes of different faiths, due to Cupid doing his job well !
Admittedly, the number of such couples was very less in earlier years that now. These stories are not having fictional characters , but real life flesh-and-blood individuals choosing to marry a person of different religion.
This makes them quite brave, irrespective of the period in which they decided to go ahead.
Let's begin at the beginning.
In the Thirties, the actress-singer- composer and producer Jaddan Bai was a popular name in the fledgling Hindi cinema industry. She married thrice and her last husband was Uttamchand Mohanchand, a devout Saraswat Brahmin, who converted to Islam and was named Adbul Rashid.
The Forties saw another Muslim film and theatre actress and dancer marry a Hindu. Born as Sahibzaadi Zohra Begum Mumtaz-ullah Khan, Zohra was an accomplished ballet dancer and singer. She was one of the heroines of Neecha Nagar, by Chetan Anand, the first film to have won an international award. She was part of the IPTA too. She came into contact with Kamleshwar Sehgal , scientist, painter and dancer of Indore, who was from the Radha Soami sect.
The Fifties case is that of Zubeida Begum. She was an actress, who had starred in the first ever talkies Alam Ara, after having a successful stint in the silent era. She acted in many mythological films and made a great pair with Jal Merchant. She married the King of Jodhpur, Raja Hanwant Singh, by converting to Hinduism, taking the name of Vidya.
The most celebrated inter-faith couple was however, Nargis and Sunil Dutt who married in 1958. This was probably the first of the many second generation inter-faith marriages to occur, Nargis being the daughter of Jaddan Bai and Uttamchand Mohanlal.
Playing his mother in Mother India, she was saved in a fire accident by Sunil Dutt by risking his life. The two go close and married, making Nargis a second-generation actor to have tied the knot to a person of different faith. At this point of time, both were celebrated stars and this became one of the most talked about marriages in Hindi filmdom. Nargis changed her name to Nirmala after marriage.
In the Fifties, the Kapoor brothers Shammi and Shashi, both married outside their religion. Shammi married Geeta Bali ( Harsimran Kaur, a Sikh) and Shashi married Jennifer Kendal, a catholic Christian and his co-star in many plays and films.
Early in the Sixties, the marriage of Madhubala (Mumtaz Begum Jahan Dehalvi, originally ) with Kishore Kumar ( originally Abhas Kumar Ganguly, who took on the name Abdul Karim) was in the headlines. it is aid that this was a marriage on the rebound by Madhubala, after her liaison with Dilip Kumar came to a nought. The two actors were part of many films and even though they were not romantically linked publicly, they chose to get married. Madhubala was ill at the time. They were married for nine years :she died in 1969 at the age of 36.
Rajshree V.Shantaram , the actress of the doyen of the film industry married Greg Chapman, an American student she had met while shooting for Around The World.
The most famous and extremely successful inter-faith ( and inter-professional) conjugal union of the 60s was that of Sharmila Tagore, great-great--grand niece of Rabindranath Tagore marrying Nawab Mansoor Ali khan of Pataudi. Sharmila was a successful actress and Mansoor was the captain of the Indian Cricket team. Sharmila converted to Islam and took the name of Ayesha Sultana.
The Seventies saw many such cases, as the society was gradually coming out of the orthodox mindset.
Waheeda Rehman , a Muslim actress married Kanwaljeet , a businessman and her co-actor inShagoon ( 1964). Waheeda was a very popular and successful actress, having portrayed a lot of varying roles and in the 70s, she had started to play mother to younger actresses ( Phagun of 1973 saw her playing mother to Jaya Bhaduri). In 1974, she married her beau.
The number of such marriages swelled in the Seventies and Eighties in Bollywood.
Three Irani sisters Honey, Daisy and Menaka, all married non-Parsis !
Three Irani sisters Honey, Daisy and Menaka, all married non-Parsis !
Honey married Javed Akhtar scriptwriter and lyricist, Daisy married K.K.Shukla script-writer and Menaka married actor-director Kamran Khan. Salim Khan, script writer first married Sushila Charak and later on, Helen.
Farooq Sheikh married his college junior and co-actor on stage Roopa Jain. Naseeruddin Shah married Ratna Pathak. Sangeeta Bijlani got married to cricketer Azharuddin and Reena Roy married Mohsin Khan ( an international union, too).
Feroz Khan married Sundari and Mumtaz married Mayur Madhwani. Interestingly, later on the children of Feroz and Mumtaz married each other, another second generation inter-religion marriage !
Feroz Khan married Sundari and Mumtaz married Mayur Madhwani. Interestingly, later on the children of Feroz and Mumtaz married each other, another second generation inter-religion marriage !
Gulzar ( real name Sampooran Singh Kalra and a Sikh by birth) married Rakhi Majumdar, a Bengali Brahmin.
The list of Bollywood celebrities in later years is a who's who of the industry.
The list is endless with the second and even third-generation inter-faith marriages !
The first third -generation case is that of Sanjay Dutt ( son of Nargis and Sunil Dutt) who wed Manyata (actually called Dilnawaz Sheikh). Saif Ali Khan ( son of Sharmila and Mansoor) married twice, both times inter-faith: to Amrita Singh and Kareena Kapoor. Soha , his sister married Kunal Khemu.
Both the Irani sisters' descendants Farhan ( son of Honey and Javed ) and Farah ( daughter of Menaka and Kamran) were second-generation spouses as when Farhan married Adhuna Bhabhani and Farah tied the knot with Shirish Kunder.
The Khans also have Hindu wives : Shahrukh-Gauri, Aamir-Kiran, Arbaaz-Malaika , Sohail-Seema, Farah-Shirish and Zayed-Mallika Parekh.
Some more such couples: Sunil Shetty-Mana Qadri, Atul Agnihotri-Alvira Khan, Urmila matondkar-Mir Mohsin Akhtar, Zarina Wahab-Aditya Pancholi, Ritesh Deshmukh-Genelia D'Souza, Manoj Bajpai-Shabana Raza , right down to Nawazuddin-Anjali !
Almost all the major actors of the industry have found love outside their faith and married, even if it has lasted only a few years. Hritik-Suzanne, Raj Babbar-Nadira and Aamir-Reena are cases in point.
With the floodgates getting opened, more such marriages continue to happen in tinsel town, but it was the unflinching love and tenacity of these pioneers of inter-faith marriages which set the ball rolling.
2 comments:
Raj Babbar and Nadira, though estranged for a few years are together. There are a few , you have forgotten- mainly one- Dev Anand and Mona Singh [ who was a Christian by fate and a Beauty Queen of Simla
I find lot of mistakes in your post.
Firstly, there were atleast two times more intercaste and interreligion marriages in the 30s and the 40s, in the Hindi film industries.
Secondly Uttamchand mohanlal was NOT a saraswat bramhin, he was a Rajasthani from Rawalpindi who had come to Lucknow to study Medicine.
Thirdly, you have mixed up Two Zubeidas. Zubeida who acted in first Talkie Alam Ara and the Zubeida who married the Rajah of Jodhpur in the 50s are two different persons. Alam Ara Zubeida also married a Hindu-Raja Dhanrajgir of Hyderabad, but in the year 1936 itself.The later Zubeida was different. Kindly read my 3 articles " Same name Confusions" about Hindi films' same name artistes, available on www.anmolfankaar.com under Blogs column.
I could not read your article further..
-Arunkumar Deshmukh
Post a Comment