It was on June 3, 1973, when the most iconic and power-packed pair of Bollywood, Jaya Bhaduri and Amitabh Bachchan, got married in a hush-hush ceremony. The couple has completed 52 years of togetherness, and on the occasion of their 52nd anniversary, take a look at the time when the pair was to have a simple wedding, but a Bengali priest objected to the same. There was a twist in Jaya and Amitabh’s wedding as the Bengali priest was not fond of the actress being a Bengali Brahmin marrying Amitabh, a non-Brahmin.
When Jaya Bachchan’s father, Taroon Coomar Bhaduri, revealed that a Bengali priest objected to her and Amitabh’s wedding
Soon after Jaya and Amitabh got married, the protest by the Bengali priest did not get out in the public eye. However, it was Jaya’s dad, Taroon Coomar Bhaduri, a journalist who had written about the same in an article back in 1989 for The Illustrated Weekly of India. He had called his daughter, Jaya, a determined lady who liked to have things her way since childhood. He did not know what drew Jaya and Amitabh to each other. He then shared their secret marriage, and when they decided to get married, things moved fast. Jaya and Amitabh got married secretly in the flat of their family friends at Malabar Hill in front of the Pandit. However, Taroon had written that a Bengali priest had objected and had quipped:
“Priest protests against inter-caste union. A Bengali marriage is usually a long-drawn-out but 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 hassle, this was sorted out.”