Aamir Khan and Reena Dutta’s love story had all the elements of a Bollywood script; young love, family opposition, secret decisions, and emotional turns.

The two fell in love as teenagers, living in houses opposite each other and communicating through their windows. However, when Reena’s parents discovered their relationship, they strongly disapproved and made her promise to never see him again. Due to this, they decided to secretly marry in order to secure their bond.

A secret marriage

Recalling that time, Aamir shared how he first looked into the legal side of things.

“I first read the special marriage act to understand if what Reena and I were planning to do was politically sound. I was not yet 21 when I decided to marry. In 1986, when I turned 21 in April, on the 18th of that month we legally got married.”

The court marriage was witnessed by Aamir’s friend Satya (creator of Satyameva Jayate), his wife Swati, and his cousin Anand.

“We got married on April 18, two days after I turned 21. Those two days we waited because it was a weekend. We got married and went to our respective houses,” he added.

The marriage remained a secret for a while, until an unexpected turn led Reena to share the truth.

“Reena ended up revealing our marriage to her sister Anu. She was shocked. Her parents didn’t react too well. Now that Reena’s parents knew this, I thought it was time my parents knew it too. I called her to meet my parents. I assembled all my family members to break the news. My parents thought she was my girlfriend. They were blushing. My father was a dynamite.

He was short tempered. But once I started to tell them the details of our love story, all the ladies in the house started to cry. Surprisingly, my dad got up and hugged me. I didn’t expect this. He said, ‘Now you are both married, now what’s bothering you?’ I said, ‘Reena’s parents are returning from Chennai in 30 minutes and that’s bothering me.’”

Winning over the family

After sharing the news with Aamir’s family, the couple decided to approach Reena’s family next. But the situation remained tense.

Aamir said, “Reena’s mother denied her from coming home. She spoke to her and said, ‘You don’t come here. We don’t want to meet you.’ This left Reena shattered. ‘You are married now. You must be happy. We don’t want to meet you.’”

It took several months for the situation to improve.

“It took them four months to cool down. One time, I remember Reena’s mom secretly called us in the absence of her dad. Four months later, Reena’s dad suffered a heart attack and we rushed to the hospital. I went to see him in the ICU along with Reena. She was very close to her father. They got emotional and cried a lot. I touched his feet and he didn’t react but later nodded at me.”

Aamir shared how the acceptance finally came.

“They eventually accepted me after I spent some time with him. He said, ‘I should have met you the first time you came to meet me, I can tell I couldn’t ever find a guy like you for Reena.’”

The relationship between Aamir and Reena’s families grew even deeper over time.

“Despite our divorce later, Reena’s father was very close to me and only listened to me. We lost him last year due to cancer,” Aamir revealed.

He also mentioned a touching connection that formed between the two families.

“Reena’s family became so close to me that my sister Farhat got married to Reena’s brother Rajeev.”