When Rani Mukerji revealed how she fell in love with Aditya Chopra: ‘I may lose the love and attraction, but I will always…

Many speculated Rani Mukerji as one of the reasons behind Aditya Chopra’s divorce with Payal Khanna. However, the actress denied being “romantically connected” to him. In a 2011 interview, Rani who was rumoured to be dating Aditya Chopra told in an interview with Star News, “He is a friend. He is a person I have worked with in so many movies. I have great regards for him. We are not romantically connected.”

When asked the reason behind doing so many films with the Chopra family, the actress said, “I want to do more films with them because they are absolutely stunning in the way they make films. Currently, they are not casting me because my films are not working, previously, when it was working, they signed me for many films. Adi is working with the stars who are successful.”

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However, three years later, in 2014, Rani tied the knot with the director-producer. Post her wedding, the rumours of her being in a relationship with Aditya Chopra once began to make headlines, with many calling her ‘home wrecker’. However, Rani Mukerji defended herself in an interview, and said, “I started seeing him only when he was out of his divorce and was not my producer. I started seeing him at a point when I was not working with him as dating your producer was not my cup of tea.”

Post her wedding with Aditya Chopra, she returned as the YRF heroine with her film Mardaani. The film released just four months after her secret wedding with the producer in Italy.

Post her wedding, Rani Mukerji often spoke about her husband and shared details about their first meeting and date. According to the actress, she first met her husband through Karan Johar when she was shooting for Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. However, Aditya Chopra had first seen her at Sampan restaurant after her film Raja Ki Aayegi Baaraat, and was expecting her to walk upto him to greet him as he was an established director by then, but to his surprise, she never did.

Later, when they decided to date each other, Aditya Chopra reportedly went to Rani Mukerji’s home and asked her out in front of her parents. In an interview with BT, the actress said, “Nothing could have been more beautiful than that.”

Eventually, the two dated for years and tied the knot in 2014. Sharing her reasons behind falling for Aditya Chopra, Rani Mukerji told Galatta India, “I think he’s a really good human being, and to me, that was the clincher. I’ve grown up in a household with my parents, and I’ve valued the kind of people that they were. In my life, it’s very important to have good people around, because I need to respect people. That’s very important to me. What I saw in Adi was a very, very gracious human being, a good person, and a great leader for his team.”

Calling him “very fair” in terms of his morals and judgement, Rani said she respected him a lot. “You might fall out of love, or lose that initial attraction, but you’ll never lose that respect you have for a person. For me, that’s very important. If I want to be close to someone, I need to respect them. I’ve seen the world very closely, I’ve worked in this industry for so many years… So, if it had to be an industry person, it could not be anybody but Adi”, said the Kuch Kuch Hota Hai actress.

The couple welcomed a daughter, Adira, in 2015. Since her wedding, Rani was seen in very limited films and mostly worked for YRF banner. Hichki in 2018, Mardaani 2 in 2019, and Bunty Aur Babli 2 in 2021. The only film that was not produced by Aditya Chopra was her 2023 film, Mrs. Chatterjee vs Norway.