When Jaya Bachchan said she never questioned Amitabh Bachchan when his name came up in gossip columns: ‘It would be cheap’

Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan have been married for 49 years and along the way, the two stars have been through thick and thin in their personal as well as professional lives but back when their marriage was just 25 years old, the two actors spoke about the time they actually fell in love with each other and how Amitabh changed a big part of Jaya’s personality. Amitabh and Jaya are celebrating their 49th anniversary on Friday.
In a 1998 chat with Simi Garewal for her show, Amitabh and Jaya revealed that they met on the sets of Guddi. Jaya was playing the titular role here and Amitabh was “excited” at the prospect of working with her. Even though he was later recast in the film because of the unavailability of his dates, the few days they shot together resulted in the union of a lifetime. Amitabh shared that before meeting Jaya, he had seen her photograph in a magazine and “enquired after her.”
When asked if she knew right away that she would marry Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya blushed and said, “I didn’t know I would marry this man. But I got frightened.” (Photo: Express Archive)
Simi questioned the couple about being under the scrutiny of the public eye at all times and asked Jaya if she questions Amitabh when his name comes up in the gossip columns. To this, Jaya said an emphatic ‘no’ and added that the reason was “because I think it’s very cheap.” “I have been in this industry, I know. I mean, I am his wife, it would be a pity if I start questioning him about things that journal, who is a fourth person who has written it. Not at all. It’s not important,” she said.

When Simi asked Jaya about her experience of meeting Amitabh for the first time, she recalled that she was “frightened”. Upon hearing this. Amitabh was left puzzled as he looked at Jaya shocking and repeated “frightened?” “When I met him first, I saw danger yes,” Jaya said.
Explaining the impact that Amitabh had on her, Jaya shared that he was the only person that she wanted to please and she had never felt that way before. “He was the only one who could dictate things to me and I’d allow him to do that,” she said. Jaya added, “Even if he said something to me mildly, I would do that. I would want to please him and that’s something that does not come to me very easily and naturally, to want to please people.”