Randeep Hooda had an interesting conversation with Mayank Shekhar of Mid-Day on various aspects of his life and career. He opened up like never before about his marriage with Lin Laishram on November 29, 2023, amid tensions in Manipur.
Randeep Hooda BREAKS silence on marrying Lin Laishram amid tension in Manipur: “As soon as our pheras finished, we could hear HUNDREDS of AK-47s going off. Lin’s brother told me, ‘Iss mahaul mein ek jaat hi aake yahaan shaadi kar sakta hai’”
Randeep began by saying, “We first met in Motley actually during the play, Arms And The Man. She had just come back from New York and met Naseer bhai (Naseeruddin Shah). She started helping around as a part of the crew. We kept meeting over the years. During the lockdown, we were held up together, leading to (our marriage).”
He then said, “My marriage itself was a big drama. There was a problem going on in Manipur. But I was like, ladki ki ghar shaadi nahin ki toh phir kya shaadi hui? My friend, Brigadier Sangwan, of the Assam Rifles, was the CO in Manipur. I called him and he told me, ‘Aa ja, main karata hoon shaadi’! 10-12 of us went there. We had no idea about the ceremony. She did show me videos of it but I was busy editing Swatantrya Veer Savarkar (2024). I told her, ‘Wow, what a ceremony’ but in reality, I had never watched the video!”
Randeep continued, “We went to her house and the lunch was fully vegetarian! A lot of Meiteis are Vaishnavs and hence, the veg meal. Before lunch, we went to the temple of the polo god, Marjing. And I anyway play polo (smiles). I wore a dhoti and was handed a small statue of the horse, a polo stick and a ball. I had carried it while climbing up the steps leading to the temple. There’s also a tribal God and a Hindu God. I told Lin, ‘Let’s do (all the ceremonies)’. My friends were saying, ‘Bhai, shaadi mein laaya hai ya teerth yatra mein?’! (laughs)!”
Randeep Hooda further stated, “Due to security reasons, we stayed in the Army Camp. As for the wedding ceremony, I had a helper with me, who’s like a tutor to the groom. Once you put on the turban, you cannot tilt your head at all. They gave me a bowl, an umbrella and a couple of other things. You are supposed to be very dignified as the groom is considered to be God. They wrap a cloth around you and once you are in the mandap, you can’t even move. If my nose is itching, the helper will scratch it for me! If I tilt down, he’ll correct me. For two hours, I remained that way. I asked him, ‘What’s the bowl for?’. He said, ‘That is given in case you want to pee since you can’t move out of the place’!”
Randeep added, “Lin also had a tutor. She got a lot of scolding (laughs). She was not supposed to smile and yet she did. The messengers sternly told her, ‘Stop smiling’. She was wearing so much gold. I joked, ‘Chalo, ek picture toh yehi ban gayi’! My mother was sitting outside the mandap. She was crying and laughing due to the whole experience.”
Randeep also touched upon the fact that the situation was not normal in Manipur, “It was a civil war. As soon as our pheras finished, we could hear hundreds of AK-47s going off! Lin’s brother told me later, ‘Iss mahaul mein ek jaat hi aake yahaan shaadi kar sakta hai’! We also went to the Relief Camps after the wedding. So, that and the marriage brought a lot of cheer to the place.”
He also remarked that both their states have something in common, “Both Haryana and Manipur have produced great sportspersons, especially boxers.”
Also Read: Randeep Hooda vs Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgn, Suniel Shetty, Naseeruddin Shah – the SHELVED film of Ram Gopal Varma that never got made; Randeep spills the beans: “I was to play the super-villain with the whole film industry on the other side”
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