What do Vidya Balan & Siddharth Roy Kapoor, Sridevi & Boney Kapoor, Kajol & Ajay Devgn, Shilpa Shetty & Raj Kundra, Aishwarya Rai & Abhishek Bachchan have in common as couplesIJ They hail from 2 (different) States, have fallen in love, gotten married and are going strong. Deebashree Mohanty brings you their funny take on how the regional divide adds spice to their marriages
Alia Bhatt and Arjun Kapoor may have run away with all the accolades for a stupendous performance on screen showing the cute regional divide in 2 States, but our very own celebs have been living this life for many years now. And living it well.
Vidya Balan who hails from Poothamkurussy in the Pallakad district of Kerala met her soulmate, Bollywood tycoon Siddharth Roy Kapoor, a Mumbai-based Punjabi. Balan tells you that her Tamil-Malayalam and Kapoor’s twisted Punjabi, makes conversation at home hilarious and sometimes incomprehensible. “But what the heck! Marriage doesn’t mean siblings tying the knot and staying together ever after. There has to be a mix and match,” Vidya Balan says.
“We like taking a break from speaking in chaste Hindi and English at home and try picking up the other’s language. I know Marathi and Bengali very well but Punjabi is a different ball game. Much to Siddharth’s angst I would trouble him on holidays and weekends saying I need to learn his language. Sometime he would get bugged and we would end up fighting. But that’s just nok-jhonk,” the ever laughing Balan adds. She is as excited as Chetan Bhagat to watch 2 States because she is hoping to find some similarity between the film and her life.
For one, Balan is hoping that the director does a good job by showing that language is the least of the problem when it comes to such marriages. Main blocks are food, clothes and festivals. “For instance, we have an equivalent of the Karva Chauth down south and I have always seen my mother go about this ceremony in a different way. But Punjabis make everything fun and attractive. I will take a few years to master the art of Karva Chauth but I am getting there,” Balan says.
There is yet another North South jodi who celebrated their 18th anniversary this year. For Sridevi and Boney Kapoor, the regional divide has never existed.
“Apart from minor food habits and dress sense, I feel there is not much difference between him and me. The only thing that irritates me is when Boney mixes up the different types of nashta. It is not in my DNA to have dosa except for breakfast. But most of my Hindi-speaking friends and colleagues pester me to make them dosa for lunch or dinner. It is not impossible to make but it doesn’t sound right. It is just annoying,” Sri insists.
It doesn’t stop here. According to these women, it is the dressing style and ignorance about clothes by North Indians that they find disturbing. “For me, putting on a gorgeous saree means wearing authentic and traditional silk. But people in Mumbai have this minimalistic dress attitude which I don’t understand,” Sri explains. For Balan, however, people misuse South Indian traditional wear by wrapping it oddly, something that puts her off.
While love marriages in Bollywood have transcended regional borders and even global frontiers, it is seen that the North-South magnet is unparalleled. What is it that attracts lovers from these 2 States/areasIJ “Blame the opposites attract theory for this. It is not the first time that we have seen couples from these diverse areas falling in love and living a rocking life. I, for one, am living this opposites-attract-wallah-life and it’s been good,” Chetan Bhagat, author of the book on which the film is based, tells you.
Apart from the North-South attraction, there is also a major Bengali-Punjabi pull that we have been noticing in the industry and elsewhere in the country. Kajol, a typical Bengali born in Mumbai, fell for Punjabi munda Ajay Devgn. Her worst fear was whether she would have to change her chatty self and loud voice to fit into the Devgn family. “But that never happened. Ajay speaks only if it is absolutely necessary and so I do his part of talking too. Same with his parents who are quiet people. That ways we are both happy. And, unlike typical Punjabis, Ajay is low on show-sha. Thank God for that,” Kajol said.
But is Ajay fine with all the Bengali vibes at home. “I feel I am one of them. I don’t see a difference between her and me,” Devgn told Karan in a season of Koffee With Karan.