This is life and it always gives you a second chance to find your love and never let it go. The unpredictable industry of Bollywood is a heaven for couples when they are in love and later turns into hell when they part ways. But there are some made in heaven couples that hold each other to end and build their own heaven. And Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah are surely one of those couples. Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah are two of the most skilled and above the curve actors industry has ever nurtured. They form a formidable actor couple in Bollywood.
The love story of Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah started way back in 1975 when they worked together for the first time in a play titled Sambhog Se Sanyas Tak, directed by Mumbai theatre veteran, Satyadev Dubey.
In no time, with a click, the click turned into good friends. The good friends started hanging out together more often and soon their friendship turned into love.
Madly in love, the couple was all set to get married. But for the marriage was not an easy task as at that Naseeruddin was a married man with a happy family. And on top of that, the couple had a huge 13-year age gap.
Naseeruddin had married a Pakistani woman, studying at the Aligarh Muslim University, where Naseeruddin was also a student. An HT Brunch story detailed how a 19-year old Naseeruddin fell in love with a 34-year old Parveen Murad, half-sister of late Surekha Sikri, and how they ended up marrying in 1969.
They kept their love under the wrap and did some movies together like Mirch Masala and The Perfect Murder.
Before getting married, the couple settled for a live-in relationship as Shah was unable to get divorced from his first wife due to alimony issues.
In Naseeruddin's biography titled And Then One Day, he described Ratna with beautiful words in the preface of the book. The couple described themselves as the last liberal couple. While talking about it, Ratna said, "We are the last of the bloody liberals left. Today, girls are doing Karva Chauth! C'mon, that's what we fought against." While Naseer said, "Today, girls as young as two are wearing hijabs. Muslim boys are growing beards claiming it's a sense of identity."
