Actor Swara Bhasker married politician Fahad Ahmad on February 16.
Others offer a fantasy. This one offers the hope that in a world clouded by hate, there can still be enough space for love; and that despite it all, you can walk together, hand-in-hand, step-by-step, wearing red — the colour of love, but also, the colour of revolution.
Written by Deepika Singh
February 17, 2023 12:22 IST
One romance bloomed on a film set; the other, at a protest.
The world was yet to fully soak in, much less recover from, the dreamy, destination wedding pictures of actors Kiara Advani and Sidharth Malhotra when images of another wedding started trickling in.
For a second, it could have passed for any other wedding: The pictures were not exactly high-definition, they were also not “socialled” in a coordinated manner on the couple’s respective accounts/handles, the outfits were simpler than what many would wear even to a friend or sibling’s wedding; the newly-weds were not even looking into the camera, or each other. The only thing that was coordinated — apart from the striking colour of their attire — was their confident stride as they walked on as a legally-married couple and the unmistakable smile that only those who have been in love can relate with. Swara Bhasker, the 34-year-old actor who has seen both commercial success and critical acclaim but is mostly known — and trolled — for being a woman who speaks her mind, has got married. But with whom?
The mystery was unravelled soon by the actor and self-confessed Twitter pest herself on her social media in the form of a two-minute film that encapsulated a three-year-old romance that began with a glance, a selfie and a smile at protest venues — a far cry from the set of the war film where Advani and Malhotra fell in love. Bhasker’s other half, it turns out, has no connection to the film industry. The man she fell for is Fahad Ahmad — a political activist and research scholar. A younger man who is not only from outside her film fraternity, but also, her religion. Ignoring coveted designers or even a Raw Mango piece, Bhasker went for a simple saree with minimal embroidery — a four-decade-old heirloom. And instead of a Rajasthani or European location, the spot where she made her wedding public was a dusty, bustling Mumbai street. When was the last time you saw a Hindi movie actor do that?
But then again, Bhasker is not just any other movie actor. She studied in JNU, her parents are neither yesteryear actors nor South Bombay socialites, and in an industry that believes in staying politically indifferent at best and politically compliant at worst, Bhasker has made no attempts to hide her leanings.
So, perhaps, this is the fitting way for an unlikely celebrity like Bhasker to get married: To a Muslim man — an upcoming politician, not a fellow actor or a “loaded” businessman. At a time when the state government has taken it upon itself to monitor interfaith marriages; to a younger man in an industry where women are expected to get married in an “age-appropriate” manner even as their male colleagues go for fresh college graduates they call “baby wife”; and in an understated saree instead of a heavy, bespoke, costing-a-million-bucks designer lehenga.
Not to put down other celebrity weddings which one has happily consumed, but doesn’t this latest one feel like a refreshing change from the cut-from-the-same-cloth (pun intended) fairytale unions being presented to us for over half a decade now — right from Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma’s Tuscany event in 2017 to the Malhotra-Advani Jaisalmer getaway earlier this month? The pastel palette, the “nude makeup”, sharing the same kind of laugh for the “candids”. As a colleague pointed out, Bhasker’s wedding is as bracing as an Anurag Kashyap film after an overdose of YRF romances.
To be fair, there are also similarities in the two love stories — of Advani and Malhotra, and Bhasker and Ahmad — if you really go looking. Both started in the same financial year (2019-20); both were largely kept under wraps until the big reveal; both involve first-generation actors (and a politician); both, mercifully, did not feature Sabyasachi (no offence but there are other designers too, people!); both endearingly involved love for a pet — a cat that Bhasker and Ahmad are seemingly raising together, and the now-deceased dog belonging to Malhotra who was lovingly remembered in the form of customised kaleere hanging from Advani’s wrists.
But while Advani and Malhotra’s wedding pictures feed our never-ending appetite for stargazing, Bhasker and Ahmad’s offer us hope. That you can come from different worlds, but still build one of your own together; that it’s okay that you are on different levels in terms of your career as long as you are on the same page in your commitment to one another; that you can find love in the unlikeliest of places and circumstances; that in a world clouded by hate, there can still be enough space for love; and that despite it all, you can walk together, hand-in-hand, step-by-step, wearing red — the colour of love, but also, the colour of revolution.
Write to the author at deepika.singh@expressindia.com