The Two Married Men Aruna Irani Dated

‘Vinod
Khanna
asked
Mehmood
if
I
could
play
his
heroine
in
a
film.’
‘He
asked
Mehmood
if
we
were
married.’
‘Mehmood
just
looked
at
me,
smiled
and
didn’t
say
anything.’

Aruna
Irani
made
some
startling
revelations
in
a
podcast
with
Bharati
S
Pradhan
for
Lehren
Retro,
when
she
said
she
dated
two
married
men.

The
two
men
that
Irani
was
referring
to
were
Mehmood
and
Kuku
Kohli,
the
director
who
launched
Ajay
Devgn’s
career
with

Phool
Aur
Kaante
in
1991.

She
went
on
to
marry
Kohli.

Irani
revealed
that
her
love
story
with
Mehmood
began
when
Dance
Director
Suresh
Bhatt
asked
her
to
‘entice’
him
into
giving
her
work.

‘But
there
also,
I
kept
saying
yes
and
no
to
Mehmood
(‘s
advances).
But
he
started
giving
me
work
and
slowly,
I
developed
a
soft
corner
for
him,’
Irani
said.

‘Then
we
became
friends
and
then
more
than
friends.’

It
was
thanks
to
Mehmood
that
she
acquired
fame
and
wealth,
Irani
acknowledged.

But
he
‘ruined’
her
career
too,
Irani
said,
as
he
did
not
address
the
marriage
rumours
that
were
circulating
around
them.

‘Vinod
Khanna
asked
Mehmood
if
I
could
play
his
heroine
in
a
film.
He
asked
Mehmood
if
we
were
married.
Mehmood
just
looked
at
me,
smiled
and
didn’t
say
anything.
So
he
made
my
career
and
ruined
it
too,’
Irani
said.

Mehmood
and
Aruna
Irani
did
many
successful
films
—

Humjoli,
Bombay
to
Goa,
Warris,
Do
Phool.

Speaking
about
her
marriage
to
Kuku
Kohli,
Aruna
Irani
said,
‘I
tried
to
get
out
of
the
relationship
but
he
did
not
let
it
happen.’

‘Sometimes
when
a
person
is
alone
and
if
h/she
gets
attracted,
you
get
carried
away.
Your
mind
does
not
work.
You
feel
good.
You
don’t
realise
what
pains
you
will
undergo
in
the
future,’
she
said.

‘I
tried
to
marry
someone
else
too
but
he
(Kohli)
did
not
let
me.
He
did
not
leave
me
for
a
second.’

Aruna
Irani
married
Kohli
at
age
40
but
the
couple
never
had
children.

She
was
Kohli’s
second
wife;
he
was
married
to
Rita
Kohli.

‘My
father
had
two
marriages,
I
am
the
second
wife’s
daughter.
From
his
first
marriage,
he
had
no
children.
So
he
married
my
mother.

‘After
marrying
my
mother,
he
had
a
line
of
kids.
But
we
were
never
allowed
to
call
our
father
‘papa’
in
front
of
anyone.
My
father
didn’t
like
it.
His
first
wife
used
to
object
to
it.
As
a
child,
I
did
not
like
that,’
Irani
recalled.

‘I
thought
my
children
should
not
have
the
same
feeling
as
I
was
the
second
wife.
If
my
child
falls
ill
in
the
night
and
asks
for
his
father,
I
cannot
tell
my
husband,
who
is
married,
and
staying
with
another
woman
to
come
in
the
night
at
that
very
moment.

‘I
would
have
no
answer
where
my
child’s
father
was
in
the
middle
of
the
night.
That’s
why
I
didn’t
have
kids.’

Irani
praised
Neena
Gupta
for
having
a
child
outside
wedlock,
saying,
‘She
has
courage.
I
didn’t
have
courage
like
her.
I
never
wanted
my
child
to
go
through
the
feeling
that
I
underwent.
Children
are
very
emotional
and
their
minds
are
never
the
same.’

‘I
can
do
without
a
child
but
I
cannot
bear
having
a
child
and
see
him
suffer.’

Irani,
who
will
turn
80
next
year,
added
that
she
brought
up
her
younger
siblings
like
her
own
children
and
lived
a
complete
life.