In the 1980s, Ravi Shastri was involved in a love affair with Amrita Singh. Their relationship was so common and talked about that there were also speculations of an engagement. However, for reasons that remain personal, the couple finally broke up. Their relationship, even after all these years, has remained a topic of interest for the fans, especially ever since an old video resurfaced recently in which Shastri openly talked about their relationship and even referred to Amrita as his “girlfriend.”
In the throwback video, Shastri shared a funny yet revealing anecdote about the day they first met. He remembered that he had met Amrita Singh, who used to be the top actress in Bollywood at that time, at a restaurant in Mumbai. To his utter surprise, he felt painfully diffident and tongue-tied throughout the encounter.
“When I met my girlfriend for the first time. Amrita Singh. You must have seen her in films. I met her for the first time in a restaurant in Mumbai. I did not say anything for the initial ten minutes. I knew that I was shy with girls, but I did not know that I will not even get a chance to speak. She kept talking for ten minutes. This was my most embarrasing moment,” Ravi Shastri said, reflecting on the awkwardness of that first date.
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The romance between Shastri and Singh was one of the most talked-about in the 80s. However, right after breaking up, Amrita went on to marry actor Saif Ali Khan in January 1991. Their marriage, much touted to be of two big personas in tinsel town, came to an end in 2004 after 13 years. Both of them have two children from this marriage: Sara Ali Khan and Ibrahim Ali Khan, who both seem to have found their place in the entertainment industry.
Ravi shastri’ interview of 1992 in which he is talking about his girlfriend Amrita Singh pic.twitter.com/nEAhkvkveM
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One of the major events that took place in Bollywood was the breakup of the marriage between Saif and Amrita, which also threw their families into a tizzy. It was on the popular chat show “Koffee With Karan” that veteran actress and Saif Ali Khan’s mother Sharmila Tagore shared her views about the divorce last year. She went on to say that that was a trying period for the family since they were so attached to the children.
“When you are together for such a long time and you have such lovely children, then no break up is easy. I know that stage, it’s very difficult to have harmony at that stage; everybody is hurt. So that stage was not nice but I tried. But that’s water under the bridge, she needed time to cool down and they worked it out together”, shared Sharmila Tagore.
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She also recalled how the separation had taken a toll on their personal lives, especially on the late Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, fondly called Tiger, who was very close to his grandchildren. “It wasn’t a happy time for us because Ibrahim was just three, and we were very fond of the children. Especially, Tiger was really fond of Ibrahim and he would say, ‘That’s a good lad.’ He didn’t get that time with him. So we felt doubly deprived to lose Amrita and lose the two kids,” Sharmila added, giving a glimpse into the emotional struggles that accompanied the high-profile split.
