Actress Mamta Mohandas opened up about her personal and married life. She revealed that she fell in love for the first time only after being diagnosed with cancer. She got married a year after beginning treatment. She also said that she has dated only one person from the film industry, and that person had hidden the fact of his engagement when he invited her for a date. Mamta was speaking to Suhasini on Jos Alukkas’ ‘Second Sunrises’ podcast.

“I acted in my first film at the age of 21. When you start working in cinema, there is always someone around you. Family is always with you. When I did my first film, my father’s main condition was that my mother would always accompany me. From the second year of college, my mother has been accompanying me, and she is still with me. When there are always people around, you cannot focus on your personal life. If you liked someone, you could only look into each other’s eyes and communicate through telepathy from a distance. At that time, I didn’t even have my own phone, so I couldn’t even exchange numbers,” she recalled.

“There was absolutely no privacy. Moreover, all my ideas about relationships came only from cinema. I believed relationships happened in a moment. But in reality, that’s not how it works. Before marriage, I had met a few men. I dated someone in college. You can’t really call it a full-fledged relationship. It was during my final year. Unfortunately, he passed away. It was a huge shock for all of us friends. Around the same time, my career was growing rapidly, and before I knew it, I was already 24. Even before I entered a proper relationship, I was diagnosed with cancer. That was in 2009. I got married a year after starting cancer treatment,” she said.

“I had no experience with relationships or dating. I didn’t know how to be in one. Before marriage, I briefly met two men, right after my cancer treatment. I have dated only one person from the film industry. When he called me out, he was already engaged. I came to know about it a month later from his brother. I asked him why he invited me for a date. There was dishonesty in it. I even took my mother’s permission before going on that date,” Mamta revealed.

“Later, I met someone else. He would call only once every four or five days. I realised I was wasting my time. I met my former husband Prajith at his twin sister’s wedding. When we spoke, we found that our likes and interests were similar. After his twin sister’s wedding, he asked, ‘Why don’t we get married next?’ I told him to speak to my father. It was that simple. I believed marriage was a lifelong commitment. But six months after the wedding, I had to walk out of it,” Mamta added.