Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri had a secret marriage, which raised many eyebrows. This led to speculations about the actress' father being unhappy about their union.
Jaya Bachchan was one of the prolific actresses in Bollywood in the 70s and 80s. She married Amitabh Bachchan and welcomed two kids, Shweta and Abhishek Bachchan. Amitabh and Jaya's wedding was chat mangni patt biyah and was kept under wraps. However, back then, rumours were rife that Jaya's father was unhappy with their union, and thus, the couple had to marry secretly.
Once, Jaya Bachchan's father, Taroon Kumar Bhaduri, wrote a column in The Statesman and spilled the beans on the real side of his son-in-law. He recalled his meeting with Amitabh Bachchan when the latter was courting Jaya. He shared that the duo had a brief conversation, but the superstar's resonant voice haunted him for some years. He shared:
"I met Amit one night in early 1972 when he was courting Jaya. Tall, lanky, dressed in a silk kurta and lungi—his then customary casual wear—he stood near his slick Pontiac, parked a few feet away from Jaya’s flat on Juhu beach. I was coming back from a party and, as I got down from my car, the tall man suddenly emerged from the darkness and touched my feet. 'Are you the author of—?' he asked. But the resonant voice I heard that night still haunts me."
He further added that when Jaya started acting in Mumbai, his wife stayed with their daughter while he lived in Bhopal. On May 25, 1973, he got a surprise trunk-call at Bhopal, and the caller said, “Baba, I am Amit. Can you and Ma come to Bombay tomorrow?” When he asked for the reason behind the same, Amitabh said:
"Ma knows, she’ll tell you.”
Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri married secretly on June 3, 1973, in the flat of their family's friends, the Pandits, at Malabar Hill. However, due to their different faiths, the pandit was initially reluctant to perform the rituals, but he later agreed. In the same article, Taroon revealed how Amitabh performed all the rituals with complete dedication and said:
"I am an atheist, but my wife is not. She insisted that it should be a proper Bengali marriage. The Bengali priest at first protested against having to preside over a marriage between a Bengali brahmin (Jaya) and a non-Bengali non-brahmin (Amit). After a lot of hassles, this was sorted out. Amit went through all the rituals, offending no one. He did with sincerity all he was told to do. The following day, they flew to London. On their return, I held a reception at Bhopal and again Amit did whatever he was told to do."
Taroon also addressed the rumours that he was against Jaya and Amitabh's wedding and called them baseless. He shared that the press tried to ruin their relations with the Bachchans but failed to do so. The veteran journalist further asked what reservations he could have had when Jaya and Amitabh were getting married. Heaping praises on Amitabh, Taroon said:
"An impression was deliberately created at one time in the press that I was not happy about the Jaya-Amitabh marriage. This is slander, plain and simple. Some people including a section of the press—have gone out of their way to sour our relations with the Bachchans. I would like to know just one good reason why my wife or I would have been opposed to the Bhaduri-Bachchan alliance. Amitabh was, and is, a lovable boy. He struggled hard to come up in the world of films. He proposed marriage to Jaya only when the film Zanjeer clicked and he has not looked back since."
Speaking along the same lines, Taroon mentioned that he was never offended by the fact that Amitabh was not a Bengali and was a non-brahmin. He added that his other two daughters were also married to non-brahmins that too with the blessings of their families. In his words:
"So, what reservations could we have? That he was not a Bengali and was a non-brahmin? How ridiculous! Another daughter of mine too is married to a non-brahmin, and if it is any consolation to my detractors, my second daughter is married to a Roman Catholic. Apart from my wife and I, my elderly parents, too, not only joined in the marriage celebrations but blessed all the three couples. And my father was a very proud brahmin. His words still ring in my ears: 'It is their life. Who are we to throw a spanner in the works? If they are happy, so should we be'.”
What are your views on Jaya Bachchan's father's revelations?
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