Tangy and chocolaty– don’t seem to be a perfect fusion, isn’t it? But these two make it the yummiest possible combo and are still relishing it for almost a decade now. No, we aren’t talking about any food, but the chocolaty boy Manav and spice girl Shweta.
Now almost faded from the silver screen, especially the lady, this couple once was heartthrobs of many. But how they steal each other’s hearts, here we spill the beans.
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Yes, this is what happened with them. It was during the shooting of daily television soap, Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii that Gohil and Kawatra met. But there wasn’t anything romantic, nor did they feel any spark.
Remembering the first meeting, Manav briefs:
"We met on the sets of a serial and became good friends. We didn't even realise when we fell in love.”
Shweta responds to it:
“It wasn't love at first sight at all. We were friends first. Cupid struck much later.”
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Both were more than glad to be friends. However, their bonding was meant to grow even stronger. After a while, Manav developed liking towards Shweta. She started feeling a tad awkward. Sharing her initial reactions, Shweta said:
“Both of us have burnt our hands in past relationships. And when I realised that he likes me more than a friend, it made me feel uncomfortable. I wasn’t being free and frank with him like earlier.”
Unable to understand how to handle the situation, she stopped talking to him. At the same time, the fear of losing a very good friend also kept haunting her. Shweta added:
“I didn’t want to get into a relationship with him. I thought that he was not my kind of guy and I was so not his kind of a girl. But then I started missing him.”
But as they say, love knows how to find its way. It took time, but slowly, everything fell into place and they started dating each other. Shweta said:
“However, there was no verbal declaration that we are seeing each other from this particular day.”
Being friends, there was no secret between them; rather their relationship had a lot of transparency. After dating for nearly three-and-a-half years, they got married in 2004.
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The companionship of almost two decades made them stronger as well as interdependent on each other. However, it also let them mature as a better person too. Defining her take on the relationship, she happily said:
“We have grown together over the years and this interdependence has also allowed us to grow individually. The best part is that we have been very aware about the process.”
Expressing his views on marriage, Manav says:
“A perfect couple is not the one who gazes into each other’s eyes and makes false promises to each other. It is necessary to have a common goal in life.”
On May 11, 2012, the couple became proud parents of a baby girl and Manav broke the news on his Twitter handle saying:
“It’s a healthy baby girl it’s still sinking in. Exhausted. Overwhelmed. Disoriented. Inexplicable! Loving it thoroughly!”
They named her Zahra and the little one did her first ramp show with her parent in August 2013, for BETI, an initiative against female foeticide at the IIJW (India International Jewellery Week).
At present, Shweta is a busy mom and her daughter is her priority. Although she doesn’t mind coming back to the small screen again, but she has her limitations. She shared:
"I certainly want to get busy with work, but daily-soaps are a complete 'No'. I have lots of offers in my kitty but I have a small daughter to look after. I am looking forward to some interesting offers in terms of cameo or an episodic, whereby I can manage to work for 10-15 days without taking any stress."
Though she has not made a comeback on the small screen, she was last seen in Alt Balaji's web series, Karrle Tu Bhi Mohabbat (season 1 and season 2), in which she shared the screen space with Sakshi Tanwar, after 12 years of Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii. Meanwhile, daddy Manav is quite busy in his career and there has been no hiatus. He is currently a part of Tenali Rama on SAB TV.
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From the beginning, the couple never took their relationship in a typical way. There was no drama to impress each other or stunts to woo hearts. When asked what caught Manav’s attention towards Shweta? Pat comes the reply:
"I loved her honesty. Actually ours was never a typical boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. We are still more friends. There is lot of compatibility and trust in our relationship."
Despite being the complete opposite of each other, Shweta was pulled towards him. Shweta shared:
"I am a happy-go-lucky person while Manav is the fastidious kind. He is a total fitness freak and digs long jogs and kick-boxing. He can spend hours behind the lens at wildlife photography. I am a complete homebody.”
Like any other couple, they too fight on several pity issues, but at the end, they fill in the differences with their intense love and understanding for each other.
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Someone had rightly said, “A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.” Shweta and Manav have implemented it to the perfection in their lives. Long live their togetherness!