Stars who bore children before marriage

And then solemnised relationships after the ‘love-child’

Like Kamal, Arjun too married after his boys arrivedLike Kamal, Arjun Rampal and Gabriella Demetriades lived in for a while. But after the birth of their two sons, Arik and Ariv, they decided to formalise their relationship. The Free Press Journal already reported that the actor and his model girlfriend registered their wedding in Goa on August 21.

Meena Iyer

In August 1985, when Sarika decided to announce her first pregnancy with Kamal Haasan, she literally climbed the rooftop of Hema Malini’s bungalow in Chennai and screamed, ‘I’m pregnant.’ Sarika and Kamal, who were living-in together, were renting Hema’s home in Tamil Nadu.

That’s when Shruti came along…

When Sarika found out that she was with child, her happiness knew no bounds. The madly-in-love actor couple welcomed their first daughter, Shruti Haasan, in January 1986. Two years after the birth of their first child, Kamal and Sarika tied the knot.

Post-marriage, Akshara arrived…

When their second daughter, Akshara, was born in 1991, the pan-India superstar, in a casual conversation, said, “Sarika and I married after Shruti was born. We were blissful in our relationship and, at first, marriage wasn’t on the cards. However, when children come along, our thoughts changed. We had a responsibility to our child. It’s nicer for the child; as parents, we wanted the best for our baby girl.” After almost three years of marriage in 1991, Kamal and Sarika welcomed their second daughter, Akshara. And Kamal felt his family was complete.

Kamal dotes on his girls

Kamal not only values his actress-daughters, but he also values their opinion. He knew they were concerned when he decided to join politics. And he took it upon himself to have long, deep conversations with them before he took the political plunge.

Love children were always around

From the ’50s, Bollywood had several love-children, a sweet term for the illegitimately born. Widespread media reports say that Indian cinema icon Rekha is reportedly a love-child of South Indian actors Gemini Ganesan and Pushpavalli. And several media outlets allegedly don’t 

recognise actor-politician Raj Babbar’s “second marriage” to the late Smita Patil. So Prateik reportedly carries the angst of being a love-child and even calls himself Prateik Smita Patil. However, a majority of Bollywood celebrities have the highest regard for the institution of marriage. They feel that if they are going to bring children into the world, it is their prime duty to save the child from carrying the stigma of being called illegitimate.

Mahesh Bhatt was the first to openly talk about illegitimacy

Mahesh Bhatt, who was one of the first major world-famous celebrities, was also one of the most forthright guys I have met. He was the one to address his illegitimacy very frankly, and he was the one to spell it out and say, “Yes, I’m born out of wedlock.”

Bhatt explained that to legitimise procreation, man and society created the institution of marriage. Of course, being the enfant terrible of the ’70s-’80s, Mahesh went on to say that in the world of computers and Star Wars, premarital sex and post-marital affairs, it is ridiculous of people to speak about illegitimate children. However, Mahesh made a clean break from his first wife, Kiran, before he married his 

second wife, Soni Razdan, in 1986. In other words, all his bravado aside, Mahesh toed the line, and all his four children—Pooja, Rahul, Shaheen and Alia—were born during the time he was “safely ensconced in his respective marriages to Kiran and Soni.”