Bollywood veteran Naseeruddin Shah is known for his impeccable acting skills and outspoken personality. Besides giving versatile performances on-screen, the actor doesn’t shy away from sharing interesting things from his personal and professional life. He also doesn’t mince words when putting forward his opinion on any happening around the world that he finds debatable.

Naseeruddin reflects upon his love story

Recently, Naseeruddin penned an open letter for the National Herald. He talked about his interfaith marriage with Ratna Pathak Shah in the article. The actor also expressed his disappointment over the current political scene that has raised uncalled questions on his alliance.

Opening up on his bond with Ratna, Naseeruddin said that he had no hesitation in marrying a Hindu, and vice-versa. He stated that he never dreamt that some ex-cabinet minister would accuse him of love jihad and would threaten him by saying ‘no one said anything when you married outside your religion’ after so many years of his marriage.

Furthermore, the actor recalled the time when his mother approved of his wife’s faith and did not ask her to convert to Islam. He wrote that the subject of Ratna converting to Islam was brought up just once by his mother and when she received a reply in negative, she concurred with a ‘Haan, mazhab kaise badla jaa sakta hai’. Naseeruddin then quoted:

“Whether this statement of a woman weaned exclusively on a diet of the Quran makes more sense than the hate-filled rhetoric of ‘Hindus and Muslims cannot live together’, I will leave to the judgement of the reader.”

The actor also highlighted that his union with Ratna for 40 years is the proof that Hindus and Muslims can live together.

Naseeruddin-Ratna’s love story

Naseeruddin and Ratna first met each other during the rehearsal of Satyadev Dubey’s play ‘Sambhog se Sanyas Tak’ in 1975. They soon began dating after being in a relationship for seven long years, they tied the knot in 1982. The couple is parents to Vivaan Shah and Imaad Shah.