Ratna Pathak Shah and Naseeruddin Shah have been married for 43 years now. Their marriage has endured despite inter-religious family feuds, professional jealousies and their different approaches to acting.
Ratna Pathak Shah and Naseeruddin Shah have been married for 43 years now. Although their marriage is inter-religious, both claim that their families never raised any major objections to their marriage. Now, in a new interview, Ratna has revealed what made their marriage last for over four decades.
“Simply put, the desire to stay married and friendship. Having similar interests definitely helps. At least in my case, I found all three of these important. We wanted to be together, very much so. We both had similar ideas about theatre and films,” said Ratna, who also works with Naseeruddin Shah in his theatre company, Motley Productions.
“We didn’t face much opposition. People made a little noise here and there. Not like today. I don’t know what would have happened if we got married today. I think we wouldn’t have got permission. But it was much easier in those days. Neither of us is very religious, so we were able to take the decision easily,” Ratna said in an interview to Faye D’Souza.
Ratna revealed, “Naseer’s words also helped: Let’s not try to define our relationship. Does it have to be husband-wife, boyfriend, girlfriend-boyfriend, whatever? Let’s see where we reach.” The two have also worked together in films like Amol Palekar’s 2005 supernatural romance Paheli (as voice artists) and Abbas Tyrewala’s 2008 romantic comedy Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na (as husband-wife).
She also talked about her and Naseer’s different ideas of becoming an actor, which they often argue about. “I would like to repeat one thing Naseer said, ‘You should not become an actor unless you feel that you will die if you don’t act.’ I am not one of those people. I am sorry. I had a big argument with Naseeruddin Shah about this. How can he say that? What is wrong with me? I don’t think I will die if I can’t act! I love acting, I enjoy it, I do it with full concentration and seriousness. But I don’t think that is all I want from life. He said, no. Ratna said, ‘If you want to be an actor-actor, a full-time, career actor, then that should be as important to you as possible.’
In an interview with Hotterfly, Ratna had revealed that Naseeruddin’s more traditional Muslim family was more accepting of their marriage, but Ratna’s parents – businessman Baldev Pathak and actor Dina Pathak – were not entirely happy. My father was not entirely happy, but unfortunately, he passed away before we got married. Mom and Naseer had a bit of a tumultuous relationship, but then both of them got attracted to each other and eventually became friends.
Not only was it an interfaith marriage, but Naseeruddin Shah also had a daughter from his first marriage – actress Heeba Shah – which broke up a long time ago. While Heeba and Ratna continue to work together in Motley Productions, Ratna also has two children from Naseeruddin Shah – composer Imad Shah and writer Vivaan Shah, who are also actors like their parents.
At a panel discussion at the FICCI FLO summit in Hyderabad earlier this year, Ratna also admitted that she had to follow her husband’s career. Coming in second place was regrettable, but he has now embraced it. He said, “It has been a much more amazing and fun journey than I could have imagined. I never thought I would make such long-lasting friendships in such a close-knit environment, but it’s these friendships that have lasted, and that’s the most valuable thing. These friendships have been made because we work together. I’m all for people from the same field coming together. It’s definitely a way to support each other, help each other and find common interests; it’s extremely valuable.”
