Was Jaya Bachchan's father against inter-caste marriage with Amitabh Bachchan? Their wedding priest protested because...

Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan have been married for more than 51 years. The power couple tied the knot with each on June 3, 1973. During their wedding, there were rumours that Jaya Bachchan's father Taroon Coomar Bhaduri was against their inter-caste marriage. In fact, it was not her father but their wedding priest who protested against their marriage.

Taroon Kumar Bhaduri was a famous journalist and writer. In his article for Illustrated Weekly of India in 1989, he talked about Jaya and Amitabh's marriage in detail. Dismissing the rumours of being unhappy with their union, Jaya's father wrote, "I would like to know just one good reason why my wife or I would have been opposed to the Bhaduri-Bachchan alliance. Amitabh was, and is, a lovable boy. He struggled hard to come up in the world of films. Initial failures did not deter him, and with a teutonic doggedness, he pursued his career. He proposed marriage to Jaya only when the film Zanjeer clicked and he has not looked back since. So, what reservations could we have? That he was not a Bengali and was a non-brahmin? How ridiculous! Another daughter of mine too is married to a non-brahmin, and if it is any consolation to my detractors, my second daughter is married to a Roman Catholic."

"Apart from my wife and I, my elderly parents, too, not only joined in the marriage celebrations but blessed all the three couples and this, in view of scores of invitees. And my father was a very proud brahmin. His words still ring in my ears: 'It is their life. Who are we to throw a spanner in the works? If they are happy, so should we be'", he further added.

The late journalist also mentioned how the whole marriage was kept a secret affair and how the wedding priest protested against their inter-caste marriage. He shared that Amitabh rang up Jaya's mother and called them to Bombay for their marriage. Jaya's father further wrote, "And presto, we were in Bombay the next day to make arrangements for a 'secret marriage' on June 3, 1973. There is no point now in going into the details of how the whole affair was kept secret and the marriage arranged in the flat of friends of our family, the Pandits, at Malabar Hill. But there is something more to it."

"A Bengali marriage is usually a long-drawn-out but a highly interesting affair. The Bengali priest (who was located with great difficulty) at first protested against having to preside over a marriage between a Bengali brahmin (Jaya) and a non-Bengali non-brahmin (Amit). After a lot of hassles, this was sorted out. Amit went through all the rituals, offending no one, and the ceremony went on until early the next morning. He did with sincerity all he was told to do. The following day, they flew to London. On their return, I held a reception at Bhopal and again Amit did whatever he was told to do," Taroon Kumar Bhaduri concluded.

Amitabh and Jaya share two children. While their daughter Shweta Bachchan is married to Nikhil Nanda, their son Abhishek Bachchan is married to Aishwarya Rai. Shweta and Nikhil have two children namely Navya Nanda and Agastya Nanda, and Abhishek and Aishwarya share a daughter named Aaradhya Bachchan.
 
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