Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra have been married for a decade now but the romance between them hasn't died down and their PDA on social media is a proof of that. But there was a time when Raj had given Shilpa an ultimatum to get either marry him or quit the relationship.
As we all know that Shilpa's journey in the Hindi film industry was not an easy ride. She had her own shares of struggles after she, at 17, made her debut with Baazigar in 1993. After a few films, her career hit a lull and she was thrown out of the films without any reason.
So while she was shooting for a film called The Man along with Sunny Deol, Raj Kundra, her then boyfriend, had asked her to choose between him or the movie.
"I had been working since I was 17 and I got married at 32. I was ready for marriage. I wanted to have a baby, which is one of the key reasons to get married. I was eager to accept a new role in my life — that of a wife, a mother, and so on. I'm very middle-class in the way I function and think. I don't regret the fact that I married at a time when I was doing really well in my career. Being a wife is a great role to play in life and I do that to the T, par mujhe apni pehchaan bhi chahiye thi. I didn't want to be dependent on another person in any manner. I am a feminist in that sense, I want my space to make my choices. I remember I was shooting for a film called The Man with Sunny Deol. His dates were constantly getting shuffled. Raj (husband) gave me an ultimatum to get married or quit the relationship. I had to choose between The Man and my man," Shilpa Shetty told Bombay Times in an interview.
And eventually, Shilpa chose Raj over The Man and it turned out to be one of the best decisions in her life as Sunny Deol had then shelved the movie.
"Imagine, if I had made a different choice back then, I would have been sitting at a salon colouring my greys without my man (laughs!). Sometimes, you have to make a decision at the moment. I don't live in the past or the future. I live for now. I had a chance to headline Eastenders (British TV series) and settle in London, but I was keen to begin a new phase of my life. I wanted to go on holidays, enjoy my time and find peace," Shilpa said.
She further added, "When Raj proposed to me, it all felt right. And trust me, I am not a conventional thinker. I was okay with the idea of being in a live-in relationship and having a baby out of wedlock, if my parents had permitted me to do it. But I made some conventional choices for the love of my mother and the respect that I have for the institution of marriage."
If things fall right in place, Shilpa will soon be making a comeback in films and her husband Raj Kundra is very supportive of her decision and they have long chats about it.
"With the kind of equation that we share, I know he will be my eternal boyfriend. He hardly behaves like a husband. In fact, today, if I'm exploring various businesses, it's because he showed me the way and I chose to follow it," Shilpa concluded.