Anupam Kher remembers meeting Kirron Kher 50 years ago in Chandigarh on her birthday: ‘You are still the same’

Along with the pictures, Anupam wrote, “Happy Birthday #Kirron! May God give you long, happy, peaceful and healthy life! I have known you for close to fifty years now. I saw you first time in 1974 at Deptt of #IndianTheatre in Chandigarh. You were the star student of #PanjabUniversity. Brilliant in studies, national Badminton player, established theatre actress and larger than life. 50years have passed. You are still the same or more. You have fought life’s toughest battles head on. And always emerged out as a winner. May you continue to win people’s love, trust and faith with your persona and goodness. Love and prayers always. 😍🌈 @kirronkhermp.”

 

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Anupam first met Kirron in Chandigarh when she was still married to her first husband, Gautam Berry. The two had no connection with each other, but things changed after Kirron started facing issues in her marriage and Anupam got betrayed by the person he was dating.

Speaking with news agency ANI about meeting Kirron for the first time, Anupam had once shared, “She was a star already then. She was doing theatres, she was working in movies. She is an MA first class first. I met her in Chandigarh. I was a simple village boy. Apparently, there was no connection between us. She was married then and had Sikandar (Kher). We used to be best of friends and we did theatres together. Later when she had problems in marriage, I was ditched by the person I was going with, and then things started to change. But we always remain best friends first.”

Kirron had also once shared how her relationship with Anupam started with friendship. She told Firstpost, “We both were in theatre in Chandigarh, and we were the best of friends. There was nothing he did not know about me, and I knew everything about him, up to the extent of knowing which girl he was planning to ‘patao’. It was fun and we worked together well too. But there was no attraction of any kind beyond friendship.”

However, the friendship soon grew into love and Anupam opened up about his feelings to her while they were in Kolkata for a play. “I remember, we were going to Calcutta for Nadira Babbar’s play, he came looking different, his head was shaved, for some film he was doing, I think. When he was leaving the room, he looked back at me, and something passed between us. Later he came and knocked on my door, and said ‘I want to talk to you.’ He then said ‘I think I have fallen in love with you.’ And suddenly there was this immense, intense change, the chemistry exploded. I got a divorce and married him. He had nothing then,” Kirron narrated. But they stood by each other and came out of a financial crunch together.

Recently too the couple faced a hard time when Kirron was diagnosed with cancer in 2021. But once again they emerged out of the difficult and Kirron recovered from the disease.

Kirron Kher has been away from the silver screen for quite some time now. Her last release in the 2014 film Khoobsurat, starring Sonam Kapoor in the lead role.