Amrita Rao: I had a secret wedding and I remember jumping with excitement

Amrita Rao has always liked to keep her personal life private. Whether it was her long-standing relationship with RJ Anmol or their wedding later, it was all under wraps. But the couple seems to have changed now. They talk about their lives, right from their dating days till now, in different videos that they put up on their social media handles. Soon they will be revealing details about their secret marriage, too! We spoke to Amrita about this and matters close to her heart.Excerpts from our conversation...
Anmol and you are known to be very private. In fact, you have always been quite secretive about your personal lives. So what prompted you to open up about your life on social media and how tough was it?
It was during the lockdown in 2020 that Anmol and I decided to do our first ever Insta Live chat together because the world had changed and there was so much grimness in the air that we thought let’s change some rules and spread some love. The response to that chat was the trigger point and we decided to document our love story and recreate those special moments in those very locations where they happened for our social media followers. Now that we have opened the doors, we are not
keeping any secrets (laughs!).
You had a secret marriage two years before you announced it to the world... which means you got married in 2014 and spoke about it only in 2016. Why did you keep it under wraps?
Yes, we had a secret wedding in 2014 where we only had immediate family members present. At that point with no social media, the world was different. The news of my wedding could have hampered my career prospects which, luckily, Anmol understood. However, getting married at the right time was also important and hence, Anmol came up with an idea to have a secret marriage and I jumped with excitement at the very thought!

So, the Vivahactress didn’t want to make her own wedding an ostentatious affair...
As the Vivah heroine, I could have got huge mileage out of my own wedding. However, Anmol and I both believe that a wedding is something very personal. Even if it was not a secret vivah, we would have planned a close-knit affair because the fact is that it’s basically your immediate family members, close relatives and friends who are the happiest for you, and are completely in sync with your emotions during such a personal ceremony. We like to keep it simple.
In one of your recent revelations, you said Anmol wanted to get married in 2012 and asked you to quit your career at that time. How did you both work around that?
That’s true. At that point, Anmol could see I was declining some huge movie offers only because I wasn’t comfortable doing kissing scenes and lovemaking sequences on screen. Hence, he thought it was the right time to focus on exploring a beautiful personal life and tying the knot. He did ask me to quit my career and I was completely shattered. However, in a day or two, he told me that in hindsight, he realised that demand was unreasonable and that he was sorry about it.
Your son Veer is over a year old now. Are you looking at returning to acting sometime soon?
Yes, this is just the perfect time. I don’t have those night duties anymore. I am going through many scripts and offers.
Earlier, for an actress, having a child or even being married would impact her career choices. That’s totally changed now. How do you feel about that?
It is social media which has truly turned around things for everyone today. We have validation of our popularity and a following to shut gossip mongers in the industry, who are always waiting to spread the rumour of your downfall! Your army of followers proves to all that you are loved and relevant despite the beautiful engagements that carry on parallelly in life.
You have done movies, some of which were big hits. But when you look back at your career, do you feel you could have added more films to your kitty, by doing things differently?
I regret not doing some movies, but I had no one experienced to advise me back then. However, by and large, the movies that I chose to do have been successful, fresh and relevant.
Where do you see yourself today as an actress, with a variety of content being created for different mediums?
The best part about today’s technology is that we can connect with the audience on our own platforms... isn’t that such a gift? With our love story, we are doing that and this is just the beginning.