Arts Entertainments

Until the devil do us part

Divorce seems to be the flavor of the season. Just five months after her marriage to Nepalese businessman Samrat Dahal, Manisha Koirala, the talented but quirky actress, made headlines again for the wrong reasons. It was speculated that the lady of Dil Se was heading to Splitville.

And again, media circles are in an uproar with former actress Karisma Kapoor, who is set to end her marriage to Delhi businessman Sanjay Kapur.

We go down memory lane and list the marriages that did not last …

Guru Dutt – Geeta Dutt

He was a movie genius. She is a talented singer. He is an admirer of Bengali culture. She is Bengali by birth. It was natural for the two of them to fall in love and then get married. Marriage and two children later, the marriage ran into an obstacle. Many say that Waheeda Rehman was the reason. Guru Dutt launched dark southern beauty, Waheeda Rehman in Pyasa and the rest, they say is history. The director was completely in love with this delicate beauty … although, Waheeda maintains to this day, that amber was one-sided.

The one-sided romance, box office flops (Kaagaz ke Phool and Pyaasa, both were her labor of love), and horrible lifestyle (drinking, smoking, and eccentric streak) led to her end and the end of her married life. At the time of his death, he was separated from his wife Geeta Dutt and Waheeda Rehman had become estranged from him.

Vinod Khanna – Geetanjali

Vinod Khaana is among the most handsome men Hindu movies have ever known: dark, tall, broad-shouldered, and strong. Although he started out as a villain in the movies, the producers and directors soon realized that he was acting material. In fact, competing against Amitabh Bachchan for much of his career, he was a critical favorite as much as the masses adored Bachchan.

In the early 1970s, even as he was still establishing his career, Khaana married his college sweetheart Geetanjali and within two years the two were proud parents of two boys, Rahul and Akshaye. But sometime around 1975, Khanna became a disciple of acharya Rajneesh and then in the early 1980s, he moved to Rajneeshpuram in the US for four years washing dishes and working as an Osho gardener.

Although he was in contact with his family by phone from the US, the separation affected his beautiful wife and resulted in a divorce. Vinod is now married to Kavita Khanna, a lawyer by profession and has a son and a daughter.

Zeenat Aman – Mazhar Khan

There is something about beautiful, intelligent and super sexy women, particularly from the 70s era. Zeenat Aman was something of a standard-bearer for this brigade. She had a beautiful body that she never shied away from showing off. She had a mind of her own and never thought to let her know. Unfortunately, she was always attracted to handsome and famous men and never able to respect a woman for being an independent person.

Zeenat dated (and married) Sanjay Khan and was publicly abused by Sanjay and his first wife, Zarine Khan at a hotel in Mumbai. The lady was also rumored to have had a roar with Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan, but nothing concrete actually came out. In the early 1980s, Zeenat finally settled down with small-time actor Mazhar Khan, by whom he has two children.

But this marriage was also very stressed, as Mazhar and his family had beaten Zeenat at his home. Zeenat claimed that his eldest son who had been brainwashed by his in-laws joined the beating session.

The marriage ended with Mazhar Khan dying of alcohol in 1998.

Dimple Kapadia – Rajesh Khanna

He really was the only superstar the country has ever known. Rajesh Khanna broke many hearts when he married ‘beauty Bobby’ Dimple Kapadia. They couldn’t have been better matched: she’s a 16-year-old with wonderful eyes tasting success for the first time in her life, and he’s a superstar eager to establish himself.

Not many know the exact reason the two broke up. The speculation stems from Rajesh Khanna’s sudden fall from stardom. A series of racing failures had a major role to play in the separation of the two.

Although they did not actually divorce, the separation did occur. In time, the bitterness is gone. Today, they are the proud parents of Twinkle Khanna (married to superstar Akshay Kumar) and Rinke Khanaa (married to Samit Saran).

Rekha – Mukesh Agarwal

Sometimes one love is the only love. That could very well be said of the perennial Rekha. Born as Bhanupriya Ganesan, illegitimate daughter of southern matinee idol Shivaji Ganesan, when Rekha made an entry in Hindi movies, she was a nasty-looking ulgy paw, though star power was still there to be seen. Over time, it metamorphosed into a beautiful dark beauty, like a swan. Many insist that it was after she came into contact with a Mr. Bachchan.

Reams of paper have been printed speculating the exact twist and turns of this triangle. If the palpable passion of his films is to be believed, the chemistry between the two was electrifying. But the marriage was not going to be like this.

Rekha was rumored to have married Vinod Mehra, but that was speculation. She definitely married businessman Mukesh Aggarwal, but the marriage just didn’t work out for Rekha and her husband, completely disappointed, hanged himself to death.

Randhir Kapoor – Babita

He was the scion of Kapoor khandan and she was a future actress. Randhir Kapoor and Babita made several movies together before deciding to get married. It is said that the first years were rosy, but soon tensions began to appear. It is speculated that Babita, first cousin of the famous actress Sadhna, could not cope with the super stardom of the Kapoors and left the marriage with her two daughters in tow. Although Randhir Kapoor and Babita never divorced, they did not stay together either.

Rakhee – Gulzar

She was a fragile Bengali beauty like no one had ever seen her. He was a talented lyricist and director that Bollywood would not see for a long, long time. Love flourished, but the marriage could not be sustained. He was known to be violent while she was a bit neurotic, according to reports.

Reena Roy – Mohsin Khan

The ’70s star Reena Roy was absolutely in love with Pakistani cricketer Mohsin Khan. So was her kind cricketer lover, who would fly to London especially to meet her. The two married in 1983 only to soon part ways. It was a painful divorce that saw Mohsin gain custody of his daughter. Much later, when Mohsin remarried, he gave up claiming his daughter. Today, Reena Roy lives in Mumbai with her daughter, now renamed Sanam.

Sanjay Dutt by Rhea Pillai

Sanjay Dutt was the last casanova of Bollywood dating actresses like Tina Munim, star Richa Sharma, Madhuri Dixit, Lisa Ray, Rhea Pillai, Nadia Durrani (based in London) and eventually settled down with Manyata.

Rumor has it that while Sanju Baba had a maddening affair with Madhuri, he actually married three women: first his wife Richa Sharma, who died early in their marriage; then Rhea Pillai, who stood by his side during his insane days in jail. Sadly, it was a love that couldn’t see a bright future. While adversity brought them closer together, the good times couldn’t keep them together. While nothing went wrong, so to speak, they just walked away …

The marriage ended in 2005. Sanjay is now married to Manyataa.

Saif – Amrita

Here was another star couple who just couldn’t put it on. When the two met in 1991, Amrita was a successful actress and had just started. But love flourished and the marriage of the obvious result. But the marriage was not easy. Saif’s parents did not approve of the match; so the two were secretly married. Of course, later the parents came. What’s even more surprising is that the two remained married for close to 13 years, having two children, Sara and Ibrahim together. But the stormy relationship had to happen when a decision had to be made.

It would be safe to assume that Amrita got caught up in a happy marriage (or read mundane) while Saif was slowly recovering and found the relationship ranged from boring to stifling. Over time, Saif’s name became attached to pretty faces like Riya Sen, Smriti Mishra, and Preity Zinta. Things completely changed when Saif puts Roza on.

Soon, it was Splitville for the two of them when they finally divorced in 2004.

Nandita Das – Saumya Sen

The feisty and courageous actress has now seen two divorces, although the second is the most talked about. Saumya Sen, an advertising executive, married Nandita in 2002 and they remained married for seven years. But in 2009, Nandita ended the marriage citing irreconcilable differences.

However, she has recovered and is now married for the third time, this time to environmental entrepreneur Subodh Maskara and has a four-month-old son with him named Vihaan.

Likewise, Hollywood has seen its own list of failed marriages: Eva Parker-Tony Parker;

Sandra Bullock – Jesse James; Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt; Kate Winslet, Sam Mendes;

Britney Spears, Kevin Federline; Imran Khan – Jemima Goldsmith and Rihanna – Chris Brown.

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