Popular British actor, Sanjeev Bhaskar is married to a very famous actress, who is also a playwright, singer and journalist.
British actor, comedian and television presenter, Sanjeev Bhaskar is a popular name in Hollywood. He is best known for his work in the television drama, The Indian Doctor and the British crime series, Unforgotten. He is one of the prolific actors and has proved his versatility as an actor in films like Anita and Me, The Guru, It’s A Wonderful Afterlife, Yesterday and many others.
Born to Indian parents, Inderjit and Janak, Bhasker came to the UK after the partition of India. Sanjeev started working at the age of 14. After graduating in marketing, Sanjeev started working at IBM as a marketing executive. It was during his mundane job that Sanjeev, along with his friend began a musical comedy double act, The Secret Asians.
Apart from doing theatre, Sanjeev filmed a documentary in 2007 titled, India With Sanjeev Bhaskar. In the documentary, Sanjeev took an emotional journey to his father’s ancestral home, now in Pakistan. In the same year, he also launched his first book with the same title, India With Sanjeev Bhaskar, which went on to become the Sunday Times bestseller.
Though Sanjeev Bhaskar is a popular name in the UK, many people don’t know that his wife is equally popular as him. Yes, Sanjeev is married to comedian, playwright and actress, Meera Syal, who is one of the UK’s best-known Asian personalities. Let us read on to know their love story.
Meera Syal is an award-winning actress, comedian, playwright, singer and journalist. Born in Staffordshire, Meera’s Indian parents came to the UK from New Delhi. After her initial schooling, Meera studied English and Drama at the Manchester University. As an actress, Meera has done some tremendous roles in films and TV shows throughout her impressive career, including Absolutely Fabulous, Paddington 2, Beautiful People, Doctor Who, The Sandman, and Doctor Strange.
She was the scriptwriter on A.R. Rahman and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bombay Dreams. She also wrote the screenplay of the 1993 film, Bhaji on the Beach. As a singer, she achieved a number-one record with Gareth Gates for the song, Spirit in the Sky, the Comic Relief single. Not just this, Meera occasionally writes columns for The Guardian as a journalist.
Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar have acted together in many shows together. However, it was her portrayal as Sanjeev’s grandmother, ‘Ummi’, in the popular sitcom, The Kumars at No. 42 that got her a lot of recognition. The show, which ran for seven series, won the International Emmy Award.
Meera and Sanjeev collaborated together frequently and have also played husband and wife in the romantic comedy Yesterday. In the show, which starred Himesh Patel, Lily James, Joel Fry and Ed Sheeran, Sanjeeva and Meera played the role of Jack Malik's parents.
Sanjeev Bhaskar married Meera Syal in 2005, and the couple has a son, Shaan Bhaskar. Sanjeev and Meera have worked together in many shows, but it was during a 23-hour flight to Australia for their show, Goodness Gracious Me, that the two fell in love with each other. During an interview with The Guardian, Sanjeev spoke about the same and said:
“We were on such a high – we were being flown first class to promote the show, which had been a hit over there; Meera was releasing her film Anita & Me; and we had just found out that we'd gotten to No. 1 on the UK chart with our Comic Relief single with Gareth Gates.”
In the same interview, Sanjeev revealed that it was after that one flight journey that the two realised that they wanted to spend more time together. In his words:
“The thing with 23 hours in someone's company is that you get the raw version of each other – especially me, since I can't sleep on a plane. I had no filter, and Meera was very nice about it. It was an intense period, but that intensity made us both realise that we wanted to hang out with each other more."
Did you know about Sanjeev Bhaskar’s wife, Meera Syal and their love story? Let us know.
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