In the tinsel town, love affairs and relationships are pretty common and it’s not a new trend. From veteran celebrities in their old days to the younger generation of today, every Bollywood star has been linked-up with one or multiple partners. While we know everything about the professional life of our favourite celebs, we often tend to not go deep inside their personal lives if it isn’t making to the headlines.
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Such is also the case with veteran actress, Aruna Irani. Presently she is married to film director, writer and editor, Kuku Kohli. But during her younger days, she was in a relationship with the legendary actor, Mehmood. So, let’s explore Aruna Irani’s love life.
Aruna Irani was born on August 18, 1946, in a family of film people. Her father was a renowned stage actor and her mother was a film actress. She had to give up her studies when she was in the sixth standard as her father didn’t have enough money to educate his children. Aruna Irani’s life is truly a ‘rags to riches’ story. Once, talking to Filmfare, she was quoted as saying:
“English was taught from the fourth standard and by the time I reached the sixth, I was out of school. If anyone asked me ‘What’s your name?’ I’d reply, ‘My name is Aroona.’ Then I heard people just reply with their name. My desire to learn helped me. I bought a small Oxford dictionary for ` 3.75. It was English to Hindi and Hindi to English. When someone said ‘butter’ I’d check the spelling and realise it was spelt butter and not ‘butar’”.
Aruna Irani first acted as a child artist in the 1961 film, Ganga Jamuna after she was discovered by Dilip Kumar. Post that, there was no looking back for her. She went on to act in more than 300 films in Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati cinema.
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After numerous films, Aruna Irani had made a name for herself in the Hindi film industry. And her work took so much of her time that she never thought of marriage until the age of 40. In an interview, she had once said:
“I was over 40 when I met Kukuji (director Kuku Kohli). He was the director of one of my films. A spark was lit. I did try to settle with someone else but he wouldn’t let me. To be honest, I was attached to Kukuji too”.
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Aruna was well aware of the fact that Kuku Kohli was a married man with children. But she made peace with that. The couple got married in the year 1960. She consciously decided to never have any kids in her marital life. Talking about the same, she once confided to Filmfare:
“When I see my nephews and nieces today, I’m glad I have no children. If a visitor comes to the house and my child didn’t greet them or kept lolling on the sofa, as today’s children do, I would be upset. Their attitude is, ‘So what?’ God is great. A dear friend Dr Ajay Kothari made me see reason and helped me make up my mind. He said, ‘It’s fine that you got married, you need companionship but the generation gap between a child and you would be too much to handle’. I believe he was right. My child and I would have suffocated each other”.
For a successful actress in the Hindi film industry, being around men was and still is no surprise. She acknowledges herself that she met quite a few good men in her life and recalled in an interview with Filmfare later:
“They were good men, I made mistakes but it’s all in the past now. Maybe they weren’t worthy of me or I wasn’t worthy of them, who knows?”
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But on being probed further, she accepts the importance and special place that actor-producer-director, Mehmood had in her life. She revealed:
“Yes I was friendly with him. In fact, I was over friendly with him. You can term it infatuation, friendship or whatever. But we were never married. Nor were we in love. If we had been, our relationship would have continued. Love never ends, it’s forever. As I said, I’ve waved the past goodbye”.
In fact, her over-friendliness with Mehmood could have been a good reason for a dip in her career. She retorted once:
“People misconstrued our relationship and may have had the impression we were married. They believed he wouldn’t let me work. We did many films together and shared a good chemistry. Besides, I was at an age when attractions happen. I got carried away. People were talking and we were being written about. I never issued a clarification. I assumed the media would come to me for my side of the story. I regret not speaking up then. My silence harmed my career”.
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So, this was Aruna Irani’s love life for you, guys. In spite of a great chemistry between her and Mehmood, she ended up marrying Kuku Kohli. And it was her choice not to have kids of her own in life. Do let us know in the comments section below as to what you feel about Aruna Irani’s love life.