‘Aditya Pancholi didn’t convert to Islam, but he changed his name for nikaah ceremony’: Zarina Wahab opens up about interfaith marriage of 36 years

Also read – ‘Aditya Pancholi heera hai’: Zarina Wahab says husband known as a short-tempered man, but he was ‘made to act like that’

Asked if their different religious backgrounds ever got in the way of their marriage, she said, “When I got married to him, everyone said, ‘He’s so handsome, he’s so young, this won’t last more than five months’. But now it has been 36 years. Look around, there are so many temples in my house. I do the namaaz. We don’t distinguish on the basis of religion in our house, there are no differences, we have everything we need… Even my in-laws are very nice. There were no hurdles.”

Zarina said that they had a nikaah ceremony, and when she was asked if he converted to Islam, she said, “He didn’t convert, but like it is with Muslims, he had to change his name, so he did that.”

She said that they named their daughter Sana after coming across a character named as such in a Pakistani show, and they named their son Sooraj because that was what Aditya’s character was called in one of his films. There were no discussions about whether they should give their kids Islamic or Hindu names. She said that both Sana and Sooraj were allowed to find their own religious identity in life. “Religion has never come between us, not even Nirmal, he’s such a sweetheart,” she said.