COLAS, CARS AND COMMUNAL HARMONY
A DOFF TO BOLLYWOOD’S SECULAR COLOURS
AUTHOR: BHARATHI S PRADHAN
Published in 2003
Book in vrey good condition
Religion is no barrier for true love in Bollywood. Bharathi S Pradhan takes a look at two happy and very mixed marriages!
Excerpts from the book:-
Papa is the benchmark for everything in the world of five-year-old Aryan Shah Rukh Khan. Even the supremacy of Allah his a test vis-a-vis dad's prowess. "For him, it's all a question of who's stronger than papa," dimples a delighted Shah Rukh Khan.
"Aryan will ask me, Can you jump higher than Jackie Chan?' And I say, yes. 'Higher than a cheetah?' Yes. Then he'll slowly ask, 'As high as Allah?' And I say, no. He jumps the highest, He's the only one who loves us more than Papa does. So that's the concept of Allah for him. When you do nice things, Allah gives you sweets, that was his concept when he was 3 1/2 years old."
Then a new God was introduced to the curious tot — mom Gauri's Ganpati. Shah Rukh explains tenderly, "When Ganpati came in, Aryan was told by Gauri that Ganpati is Bhagwan. Now God is Allah for Aryan. I didn't know that he knew about Ganpati, so I asked him once, do you know who this is? And he said, yes, I know, this is Ganpati Allah. It's such a nice thought, so untouched as yet by society. Ganpati allah, I hope he remains that way all his life. Shah Rukh did not think twice about religion as a divide when he wooed and wed Gauri Chhiba, a Delhi girl from a rather strait-laced Hindu family.
"It didn't bother me," says SRK. "My parents didn't bring me up as a Hindu or Muslim. My father (Mir Mohammed) had died but my mother knew about Gauri before she passed away. If my father had been alive, he'd have been even more pro our marriage. He was very secular, so was my mother. They'd have never made an issue of it, my mother didn't. But other people did when they saw our 30-day notice, the intent to marry notice that's mandatory in a civil marriage.
"Gauri's parents were a little taken aback. They're a wonderful, simple family who are more or less vegetarians. The image of a Pathan is a meat-eating, women beating, gorilla. But I'm none of these."
The young 19-year-old who'd decided to go ahead with a court marriage without parental permission, had enough reason to believe that Shah Rukh would treat her like a queen. Gauri had no reservations that she was marrying a Muslim actor.
Shah Rukh analyses, "She knew me for too long, nearly eight to nine years, to have any reservations. We met in 1984 and we got married in 1991. You just like a guy and hope everything turns out fine. I'm genuinely happy that her dream has not been shattered. I personally just think there is one supreme being. We have given Him different faces. I sometimes say khuda hafiz to Gauri and she says bye! So what's the big deal? It's jannat (paradise) in mannat. The security is tight — trespassers and religious angst strictly not allowed.
When Hrithik Roshan fell in love, it was literally a traffic-stopping moment for him. He'd seen Suzanne Khan at a traffic light and his heart had lurched. It took a few months for the moonstruck young man to tell his mom, Pinky Roshan just how honourable his intentions were. Hrithik distinctly remembers, "I'd been brought up to believe that the best religion is humanity. So, I instinctively knew that Suzanne's religion wouldn't matter. Just as I expected, my father and mother didn't raise objections to our marriage."
Hrithik adds, "I think it's ridiculous to judge people by their religion. Whatever her creed, she'd still be the same person." When the Roshans heard about Hrithik and Suzanne, it didn't stump them. Father Rakesh Roshan recalls, "We only told Hrithik to make sure that he doesn't hurt her and made sure he stands by his commitment." Happily the Hindu-Muslim card didn't get played by either the Khan clan or the Roshan parivar. Any mention of conversion didn't arise and it was a foregone conclusion that they'd opt for a civil wedding.
"We did our own thing," Hrithik describes his wedding. "We had neither a Hindu ceremony nor a nikkah. Actually both of us had always wanted a church wedding. We had something close to that in Bangalore. The pool in Golden Palms is something like an island and has a bridge extending to it's edge. The bridge was like an aisle and we walked the entire stretch, went to the centre of the pool, took our vows and signed the register. It was better than a church wedding!"
"The film industry is secular," observes Rakesh Roshan. "I have made a film called Karan Arjun with two Khans in the title roles!"
Hrithik believes that there's no question of trying to change Suzanne in any way. He says, "In fact she was after my life to visit Vaishnodevi after marriage. She was dying to go there and we got the opportunity only this July." "Of course, Suzanne continues to be whatever she always has been," echoes Rakesh to whom conversion wasn't an option.
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