Shreyas Talpade made his grand Bollywood debut with a breakthrough performance in the National award-winning film ‘Iqbal’.
Did you know Shreyas got married to his lady love Deepti Talpade on 31st December 2004; just before the Iqbal shoot commenced?
What’s even more shocking is – he was asked by director Nagesh Kukunoor to CANCEL his wedding. His reasoning was that Iqbal (a teenage character) couldn’t be a married man in real life!
Talpade told TOI, “I was told to keep myself free for three months. When I asked why would a small role require that long, I was told I was the lead. I couldn’t believe my ears and wanted to audition again. I was very happy till, on December 28, Nagesh told me we would be shooting in Hyderabad from the day after. I was shocked and asked if I could get a day off on December 31. Nagesh was very disappointed, thinking I was asking for leave to party the night away till I told him I was getting married. He was livid and asked me to cancel the wedding, saying his Iqbal couldn’t be married!”
Eventually, Nagesh relented on the condition that Shreyas keep his wedding a secret.
“Here I was, a middle-class guy whose wedding cards had gone out, being told to cancel it; I didn’t know what to do. It was after a lot of convincing, and assuring him that I would keep the wedding under wraps, that he let me have a day off.”
Shreyas managed to keep his marriage a secret, and when his wife wanted to attend the film premiere, she went as director Nagesh’s rakhi SISTER instead to keep the fact from being revealed!
“I didn’t admit to it in any of the press interviews that I gave out. But when it came to premieres, and there were many private screenings arranged by our producer Subhash Ghai, Deepti wanted to attend. By then she and Nagesh were well-acquainted with each other; he is her rakhi brother, in fact. So, he told her to attend the premiere as his sister. On the first day, Deepti fainted outside the theatre because she was so overwhelmed with emotion to see me on the big screen.”
Shreyas and Deepti welcomed their baby girl – Aadya via surrogacy on May 4, 2018.