Sharmila Tagore and Mansoor Ali Khan’s interfaith marriage in 1968 ruffled some feathers amongst the conservatives but over four decades later, when her son Saif Ali Khan married Kareena Kapoor, or when her daughter Soha Ali Khan married Kunal Kemmu, the conservative side of the society was still verbalising their dissent. In a recent interview, Soha was asked about the noise around her when she decided to marry Kunal, and Soha recalled how people used phrases like ‘Ghar Wapsi’ and ‘Love Jihad’ during her wedding with Kunal in 2015. She shared that similar noise was made when Saif and Kareena got married in 2012. In a chat with Nayandeep Rakshit on his YouTube channel, Soha was asked if the noise got to her and she shared, “I don't think it got to me because I feel like as long as the people who I love and who I care about and I respect are on the same page as me, it’s okay. There's going to be lots of haters, there's going to be lots of voices and that's also okay. I am fine with everyone having an opinion and that's all fine. So I think these things like… interfaith marriage, even when Kunal and I got married, even when Kareena and bhai got married there were lots of strange things - Love Jihad, Ghar Wapsi, all kinds of weird headlines were being made as well. You know, ‘you took one of ours, now we will take one of yours’.” Soha shared that sometimes people just say things for the sake of saying them and do not realise the gravity of their words. She compared this noise to the one that, perhaps, bothered her parents back when they tied the knot, and said that theirs was probably a “more freeing time.” “I feel like some people don't even believe these things but people just say things, just to be sensationalist but… In many ways, perhaps, it was a more freeing time in the 60s and in certain ways, we have become, as you can see all over the world, people have become a little intolerant, a little more extreme, a little more inward thinking,” she said. ALSO READ | Parmeet Sethi says he, Archana Puran Singh respect son Aaryamann, fiancee Yogita Bihani’s decision to live-in: ‘Wedding not happening soon’ In an earlier chat with Twinkle Khanna on her YouTube channel Tweak, Sharmila recalled that they received a threat that said “bullets shall speak” before her wedding with Mansoor. “My family had organised the wedding at Fort William because they were very worried about what might happen since there were a lot of threats. But, Fort Williams refused at the last minute because some of the baraats that were coming had some Army connection. In the end, they found some Ambassador friend’s big house,” she recalled. Mandoor and Sharmila were married for 43 years, till his passing in 2011.
