Pankaj Tripathi was sent to look for a rishta for me, recalls wife Mridula: ‘Broke up that alliance, moved to boys’ hostel in Delhi’

Pankaj Tripathi, who rose to fame after his performance in Gangs of Wasseypur, struggled for quite some time before making it big. However, he maintains that unlike other actors, he didn’t have a struggle story that involved sleeping on footpath or starving for days, thanks to his wife Mridula. In an interview with The Better India, Pankaj shared that his wife took the responsibility of the household when he was trying to find work as an actor. “In fact, I tell everyone that she is the man of the house,” he said.

But, not many know that Pankaj had once been a part of Mridula’s arranged marriage process where he wasn’t the groom. Mridula recalled seeing Pankaj for the first time at her brother’s engagement ceremony. She later found out that he was the bride’s younger brother. They kept meeting over the years and love blossomed. Many years later, when Mridula’s parents started looking for a marriage alliance, Pankaj became a part of the search squad. “Pankaj accompanied my brother and sister-in-law to the prospective groom’s place. He came and told me that it was a good match for me and I would surely get much of ‘bhautik sukh.’ I did not know so much Hindi back then and asked what that meant, and he said ‘material happiness.’ That’s when I felt that I was losing something very precious,” she said.

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When Pankaj left for National School of Drama, Mridula hatched up a plan to get out of the marriage alliance. She recalled, “Only I know the lengths that I’d gone to break that marriage. And now the most important dilemma was communicating this news to Pankaj.” This took months but when she ultimately informed Pankaj, he made arrangements for her to come to Delhi so they could be together.

After reaching Delhi, Mridula lived in the same boys’ hostel where Pankaj was living. “Those boys still bully me by saying that I was the ‘Bhabhi’ of Satte pe Satta who came in all of a sudden and made them wear clothes”, she said.

Finally, the couple tied the knot in 2004 and moved to Mumbai, where they welcomed their daughter. Recalling Pankaj’s struggling days in Mumbai, Mridula said, “Yes, it was a tough time, but neither of us ever felt that we were doing anything unusual or anything extra for the other one. It’s just like if one of your hand is hurt, you use the other hand and vice-versa.”