They have been the strength to each other and partners in crime as well. This Valentine’s Day, we bring to you some of the couples of telly industry who have managed to keep the spark despite ups and downs. Sangeeta Yadav tête-à-tête’s with a few of them who share their stories
New lease of life
The love story of Salil Ankola and Ria Banerjee may not be your average fairytale but love is definitely there. Having seen the rise and the fall in his career as a famous cricketer and actor, Salil lost all hope in life and almost on the verge of giving up. But Ria Banerjee, a Facebook friend that time, brought a ray of hope in his life and made him start afresh. From quitting smoking and drinking to controlling his anger, Salil did it all with full conviction.
“lots of things happened in the past that broke a lot of ties. After coming out of rehab in 2012, I was starting up fresh and rejoined Facebook. There were around 2,000 friend requests. I had time so looked at each one of them. What caught my attention about Ria were her eyes and that we had a mutual friend — my favourite director Sangeet Sivan. So I accepted her friend request and that’s how we started talking and then we met. After a few months we got married,” Salil recalls.
Unlike other newlyweds, their life was not so full of romance. It was a roller-coaster ride as Salil was still struggling to come to terms with his new life and with the fear of not falling back to being an alcoholic.
“When we started speaking, I would listen to him patiently. Everything was so negative about him. I was shocked to see how such a great bowler and actor can have such low confidence and why did his parents give up on himIJ He never boasted of being a well-known personality. Instead, he talked about what was wrong in his life. His honesty made me fall for him. The best part of our relationship is that we keep fighting throughout the day since we don’t have anything common, yet the feeling of togetherness is amazing,” Banerjee, a doctor by profession, tells you, adding that to make him comeback as an actor on TV through Power Couple, she had to take a back seat in her profession.
Salil owes every-thing to Ria and the duo are now planning to shift their base to Mumbai from Chandigarh. “If she was not there, I don’t think I would be alive today. What I’m today is because of her. I really enjoy being with her. Earlier I was mamma’s boy, now I’m wife’s boy. Both of us are like a parent to each. We have only been married for three years but feel it has been 30. That’s how comfortable I am with her,” Ankola says.
Talking about his future plans, he says: “I believe in living the present moment in the best way possible and giving my 100 per cent. I take life as it comes and prefer to keep it simple,” Salil tells you.
Discovering love
It was an arranged marriage. But after tying the knot in 2012, Naved Jaffrey and Sayeeda discovered love. “Our parents and matchmakers turned out to be cupids. On our first meeting at a coffee shop in Mumbai, we had so many people around us that we hardly spoke to each other. We liked each other and after a few months got married,” Sayeeda says who comes from a close knit family.
For Naved, their marriage is like a perfect partnership where each compliments the other. “Sayeeda is a businesswoman and is best at handling the accounts, which I’m not good at. I’m good at innovating. She looks after my account and production and I look at the creative aspect for our upcoming venture,” Naved says.
Sayeeda decided to participate in a TV reality show with her husband because Naved was very keen on it. “I often say that love is such a lofty word. You grow and adapt to each other. If you last, that’s love and togetherness. This month we completed four years of our togetherness. That reality show is the hardest thing that I have done so far as I don’t like to share my personal space with everyone. But since we both liked the concept of the show, I agreed to accompany Naved,” Sayeeda says.
As for the relationship they share off-screen, Naved tells you that they got married at a point when he and Sayeeda were well established in their careers. “This is what makes our relationship interesting. We get to find out how to bring our strengths together. Now, I just wish to live a happily ever after without any tension and make a nice homely environment,” he tells you.
Friends turn lovers
It was not a love at first sight for telly’s popularjodi Aamir Ali and Sanjeeda Sheikh. But after six years of friendship, love blossomed.
“Six years ago, Aamir and I were introduced by a common friend and it was not that we fell in love that moment. But we found each other attractive. We became friends, started dating and eventually got married after dating for six years,” Sanjeeda says, who was also the winner of Nach Baliye season 3.
They are among the many couples who found a life partner in their best friend. “Sanjeeda and I have been very good friends. We realised that we should have married a little earlier because there is so much time we could have spent each other. I’m glad I’ve got married to her; she is lovely and understanding. We were just meant to be together,” Ali says.
It is not just Ali who feels like this. Sanjeeda too tells you that she found the best life partner in Aamir. “He is very honest; I always wanted to marry a man who is transparent as a person. His emotions show on his face. I can hide my emotions,” she says.
It is her calmness and positivity that pulled him to her. “Sanjeeda’s strength is her positivity and vibrancy. All her friends want her to be around. I want to learn her calmness as I’m a little impatient and get hyper at times. We’ve accepted each other with our strength and weakness and made it work for each other. After getting married, we got each other better. Every day our love for each other grows,” Ali says.