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Actors Saif Ali Khan and Amrita Singh had been living together for a few months when they decided to get married in 1991. While Saif was ready to take the plunge, Amrita was still in two minds about it. He was 12 years her junior, and the industry knew about their relationship. In an interview, designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla recalled the impromptu wedding, which they were witnesses at, and the fallout that happened immediately afterwards because the couple had kept the wedding a secret from their parents. Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla recalled a maulvi and a Sikh priest being present, and Amrita being given a new name during the ceremony.
Chatting with Namrata Zakaria on her YouTube channel, they said, “We signed as witnesses at their nikaahnama. One fine day, they came to us and said, ‘We want to get married now!’ It was Saif; Dingy was still undecided. They were in love, and he was living with her; it must have been six or eight months. He was ready for it, she was yes-no, yes-no. We lived in one room at the time. We went to a friend of ours, and she offered to host it. She was a single person, living by herself in a beautiful apartment. Abu and I were dressing up Dingy, and we called a maulvi, of course.”
They continued, “There was also a sardarji pandit sitting there. She got ready in whatever fit her, because there was no time… Fortunately, from her mother, she got some fantastic jewellery. Saif wore a bandhgala. Then, the maulvi said, ‘What is your name? Your name has to start with A.’ All four of us started looking at each other, and the pandit says, ‘Aziza’. That was a runaway bride, it was insane. Driving back, her mother called her… Eventually, they took it in their stride.”
In an earlier interview with Zoom, Amrita said that she let herself go after marriage. She said, “I became lazy and complacent after marriage. Someone told me that women have this great urge to nest and I started looking like a fat ostrich in a nest. I was just happy and living in my la la land.” Saif and Amrita met on the set of a Rahul Rawail film, and he asked her out not long afterwards.
In an appearance on Rendezvous with Simi Garewal, Saif recalled being invited over for dinner to Amrita’s place, and how his mother reacted to their relationship. “By the end of the evening, we kissed each other. I never left her house after that dinner. I used to sleep in another room.” Amrita added, “He spent two days at my place, but had to leave for a shoot. The first thing he did was ask me for Rs. 100 because he had no money. So, I offered him my car. But Saif said the production car was waiting for him, so he didn’t need mine.” Saif continued, “My mother knew about our relationship, but she always told me, ‘I hope you’re happy in your relationship, but don’t get married.’ I was just 21, and it’s a strange thing for a mother to say.”
Sharmila Tagore was also not aware of the impromptu wedding until after it had happened. And her reaction was quite unpleasant. “I said, ‘I got married yesterday’, and a big tear fell out of her eye and she started crying and I felt I really hurt her. And she said, ‘You really hurt me, why didn’t you tell me?’ That’s actually what happened,” Saif said in a joint appearance on Koffee with Karan with his mother.
Saif and Amrita had an acrimonious separation, after which he leveled serious allegations about her in the press. In a 2005 interview with The Telegraph, he said that he was made to feel worthless during their marriage, and that she took all his money after they separated. “I’m supposed to give Amrita Rs 5 crore, of which I’ve already given her approximately Rs 2.5 crore. Also, I’m paying Rs 1 lakh per month until my son becomes 18. I’m not Shah Rukh Khan. I don’t have that kind of money. I’ve promised her I’ll pay up the rest of the money, and I will, even if I’ve to slog till I drop dead. Whatever I’ve earned from doing ads, stage shows and films is being given for my children. I’ve no money. Our bungalow is for Amrita and the kids, and never mind the relatives who’ve joined her after my departure,” he shared, adding that he had been restricted from meeting his children, Sara and Ibrahim.
Saif is now married to actor Kareena Kapoor, with whom he has two sons, Taimur and Jehangir. Both Sara and Ibrahim are actors in Hindi films, with Ibrahim having debuted this year.
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