“I read the newspapers religiously every morning. But only to see when I’m getting married. The date changes every day. Fortunately, however, the person I’m supposedly getting married to has been a constant for some time now,” Rani Mukherjee told tabloid! in December 2010, referring to Aditya Chopra, during a visit to Gulf News office with Vidya Balan to promote the film No One Killed Jessica.
Soon after, she vehemently denied dating Chopra in a talk show on an Indian television channel.
“Definitely, it’s a rumour,” Mukherjee said in the show. “My fans, who’ve given me so much love and blessings, it is my duty that they be the first to know if I settle down… Of course [Aditya Chopra] is a friend. He’s a person I’ve worked with in so many films. I have great regard for him. [But] no we are not romantically connected… why I’m not working in Yash Raj films is because my films are not working at the box office.”
And yet, on Monday, Mukherjee went ahead and tied the knot with the man who she’s been linked with for the longest time.
She had her “fairytale” wedding away from the media spotlight with director-producer Chopra. The media-shy Chopra, one of the biggest names in Bollywood, managed to keep their decade-long relationship under wraps in an industry otherwise rife with alleged liaisons — both pre-marital and extra-marital.
Even their engagement last year was a secret affair — only vouched for by the huge rock Mukherjee has been seen sporting — Chopra had reportedly popped the question not long after his father Yash Chopra’s death in 2012.
“Adi is extremely emotional. Since his separation with his wife Payal Malhotra, he had been dating Rani. They have been there for each other in time of need. They have been extremely steady,” a popular Bollywood magazine quoted sources after the engagement. “Rani is a simple girl… to her a relationship and its commitment are more important than all this. She didn’t want to lose Adi whom she loves the most, and whom she has held extremely close to her heart for a decade now. They didn’t want to make a tamasha [joke]. They wanted to keep it [their affair] private. It’s a major decision but they didn’t want anyone to know before it’s time to announce it.”
In the meanwhile, Mukherjee didn’t sit idle. She has been out and about playing the bahu (daughter-in-law) at family gatherings and at Chopra’s funeral. She was also seen with Chopra’s mum Pamela at various media events.
“The one person I missed terribly was Yash uncle, but I know he was there with us in spirit and his love and blessings will always be with Adi and me,” Mukherjee said in the statement announcing the marriage.
But it was common knowledge that the senior Chopras were not happy with the relationship as they preferred Chopra’s earlier wife to Mukherjee.
While the Preitys, Bipashas and Kareenas were flaunting their beaus in the media, Mukherjee managed to maintain her “good girl next-door” image in the industry. Even reports of her alleged affairs with co-stars Aamir Khan, Govinda and Abhishek Bachchan fizzled out soon.
“When you discuss your personal life in interviews, you give people a lot of fodder to analyse,” Mukherjee said in an earlier interview when asked if she was romantically involved. “I’m not the kind of person who would like people to analyse my personal life because that’s very sacred to me. It would be unfair of me to let another person be subjected to the things people talk about us. I’m used to it because I’m an actress. But it’s not right [that] I subject my partner to it.”
Well, the speculation is over. Mukherjee is married and, unlike her statement, not with her fans’ knowledge.
