A time came when almost every marriage in show business was crumbling. Amid all this negative churning came a radiant couple who believed in togetherness.
A few days ago, when pictures of the Anushka Sharma-Virat Kohli wedding went viral on social media, the response was overwhelming. It was almost as if everyone, irrespective of whether they were connected to the couple or not, unanimously endorsed their decision.
Such a positive response, particularly in show business, has not been experienced in a long, long time.
I think it was a good idea to get married out of the country, and an even better idea to release the wedding pictures and the video soon after the pheras. In doing so, the newlyweds did not isolate their fans and well-wishers in their special moment, especially the media, who had sufficient time to break exclusive stories with freshly-released pictures from the gardens of Italy.
Almost everyone I met and spoke to during the week was besotted with the news, some of them having watched the videos over and over again. I was pleasantly surprised that while they embraced naturally, they did not kiss in public.
But then everything about Anushka and Virat has been strikingly different. It is said that the two met for the first time during the shoot of a commercial, and were instantly drawn to each other. Soon they began meeting up often, and the grapevine was buzzing with the fragrance of their romance, but they never confirmed the rumors.
One rarely saw picture of them together, and both refrained from mentioning each other in print. If the film media got invasive, Anushka firmly but politely put the topic to an end. Only once did Anushka dismiss it with a laugh — I think on a Karan Johar reality show, when she was unprepared for the intimate question.
This was unusual in a time where actors posted the smallest detail of their relationships on social media. But Anushka lived life by her own rules. She never flaunted her equations with filmmakers/co-stars, never encouraged the media to take liberties, and was never even remotely irresponsible towards anybody. She did not trespass, and did not permit anybody to trespass on her space.
There came a brief season when there were rumors that it was over between them, but they never breathed a word, not to their friends, and certainly not to the media. The phase ended soon, they buried their quarrel, and evolved their relationship.
In the 1960s, when cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan was romancing actor Sharmila Tagore, everyone wanted them to come together. Both were superstars in their fields, and could have worried about how marriage would affect their individual careers. But they didn’t. They wanted to be together.
Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli also grabbed the opportunity before 2017 ended, and the beauty of the decision was in the timing – to do it while both are at the peak of their careers.
So, has romance changed for our stars over the decades? Maybe not, but the expression of love most certainly has.
In the 50s nobody ever talked about it until it was official. In the 60s, they whispered and sometimes spilled the beans. In the 70s, having the best of both the worlds meant having a wife and a mistress. I guess that is when the line ‘we are just good friends’ got invented, and was faithfully followed till the 80s. In the 90s, having the best of both worlds implied swinging both ways, but nobody discussed this in the open.
Cinema came of age in 2000, and star relationships saw a paradigm shift in 2010. The new generation worked hard and partied harder. They were buddies and soul mates, but when the film failed at the box-office, everyone went their own ways. The younger stars sprouted bulging biceps but were all fighting their demons.
A time came when almost every marriage in show business began crumbling. Filmmakers/music composers/writers/actors – some with grown-up children – were filing for divorce, and live-in couples who had sworn undying passion were splitting over incompatibility.
Amid all this negative churning comes a radiant couple who believes in marriage, believes in togetherness. And we smile back at them, and say yes!
Bhawana Somaaya is a film historian and author in Mumbai.