When Ashok Kumar’s wedding was called off because he became an actor: ‘It was considered disreputable those days’

Late actor Ashok Kumar was possibly the first actor in Indian cinema who rose to become a star. He made his film debut in 1936’s Jeevan Naiya and with Achhut Kanya, which was one of the biggest hits of that era, Ashok Kumar had arrived. And even though Ashok Kumar was doing well for himself, his family looked down upon the profession. He once revealed that at the time he was engaged to someone but his wedding was called off because he was now working in the movies.
In a 2001 chat with Rediff, he said, “It (acting) was considered disreputable those days. Call girls became heroines and pimps became heroes. So nobody thought of acting and neither did I.” He recalled that his family was strongly against his decision to be in the movies. “There was quite a furore over it. News reached my house in Khandwa; my marriage broke off,” he said.
When asked about how he eventually met his wife, Dadamoni, as he was fondly called, shared that he first met his wife Shobha when she was eight and he was 18. “In those days, girls were not allowed to step out of the house. And there she was, making chapatis. She was rolling them so fast. She made almost 50. I was quite impressed,” he recalled.
Ashok Kumar with wife Shobha Ganguly. (Photo: Express Archives)
He recalled that he was not told about his own wedding and heard about it when he was on his way to Calcutta (now Kolkata). “One day in 1936, my father called me to Khandwa. I went. My father met me at the station. He said we were going to Calcutta. Scared of him, we just went. We never questioned him,” he said. It was on his way that he learnt that they were going to Calcutta to get him married, even though he was not ready for it.
“I wasn’t ready to marry — I thought I would marry only when I started earning Rs 500 per month. Now I was earning only Rs 200. My mother wasn’t sure whether I would agree to the marriage. Since everything was arranged, I said yes,” he said. The Mahal actor said that when he got married, he was 25 and his wife was 15 and he did not remember that it was the same woman he had seen at 8 years old.

He shared that they were introduced a day before their wedding and he had no say in it. “She was introduced to me a day before we got married. I had no say in my marriage. Those days, it was the done thing,” he said.
Ashok Kumar and his wife Shobha Ganguly stayed married until she passed away in 1986.