Amitabh-Jaya Wedding: Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan are the power couple of Bollywood. The couple has been married for more than 51 years. The two tied the knot on 3 June 1973. During their marriage, rumours were spread that Jaya Bachchan’s father Tarun Kumar Bhaduri was against their intercaste marriage. However, the truth was something else. Jaya’s father himself had told the whole story.
Was the actress’s father against Amitabh-Jaya’s marriage?
Jaya Bhaduri’s father, Tarun Kumar Bhaduri, was a famous journalist and writer. In his 1989 article for the Illustrated Weekly of India, he spoke in detail about Jaya and Amitabh’s marriage. Dismissing rumours of being unhappy with the couple’s marriage, Jaya’s father wrote, “I would only like to know one good reason why my wife or I would have been opposed to the Bhaduri-Bachchan alliance. Amitabh was and is a lovely boy. He struggled hard to get into the world of films.
Initial failures did not discourage him and he pursued his career with determination. It was only after the success of the film Zanjeer that he proposed marriage to Jaya and thereafter he never looked back. What objection can we have that he was not Bengali and was a non-Brahmin? How ridiculous! Another of my daughters is also married to a non-Brahmin, and if it is any consolation to my detractors, I have another daughter who married a Roman Catholic.”
Everyone blessed the couple
He further said, “Apart from my wife and me, my elderly parents also not only joined the wedding celebrations but also blessed the three couples. And my father was a very proud Brahmin. His words still echo in my ears, ‘This is their life. Who are we to interfere? If they are happy, we should be happy too.'”
Amitabh and Jaya had a secret wedding
The late journalist also revealed how the entire wedding was kept secret and how the wedding priest was opposed to their inter-caste marriage. He revealed that Amitabh called Jaya’s mother and invited her to Bombay for the wedding. Jaya’s father further wrote, “And presto, we were in Bombay the next day to arrange the ‘secret wedding’ on June 3, 1973. Now there is no point in going into details of how the whole affair was kept secret and the wedding was fixed in the flat of our family friends, the priests in Malabar Hill, but there is more to it.”
The priest had opposed the marriage of Amitabh and Jaya
He had said, “Bengali weddings are generally long-winded but extremely interesting. The Bengali priest (whom we found out with great difficulty) initially opposed the wedding of a Bengali Brahmin (Jaya) and a non-Bengali Brahmin (Amitabh Bachchan). After much trouble, it was sorted out. Amit performed all the rituals, did not offend anyone, and the function went on till the next morning. The next day, they left for London. On their return, I hosted a welcome function in Bhopal and then Amit did what he was told to do.”
Amitabh and Jaya have two children
Amitabh and Jaya have two children. While their daughter Shweta Bachchan is married to Nikhil Nanda, their son Abhishek Bachchan is married to Aishwarya Rai. Shweta and Nikhil have two children named Navya Nanda and Agastya Nanda and Abhishek and Aishwarya have a daughter named Aaradhya Bachchan.