SHILPA: MY LOVE FOR MARRIED DAD
By NIKHITA MAHAJAN
BIG Brother winner Shilpa Shetty is nursing a secret heartache after falling in love with a married man. The Bollywood star told a friend how she yearns for film director Anubhav Sinha, a father-of-two she has described as her “soulmate”. But because it is considered dishonourable in India to be seen with a married man, the star has been banned by her mother from seeing him.
“The person I’m in love with is already married with two small children,” she told the friend. “It breaks my heart because he’s the one I want to be with, and we just can’t be together. He is no longer with his wife but it will take years for the divorce to come through. I just can’t be seen with a married man. My parents disapproved when they realised what was going on. They were really unhappy. That’s when I knew I had to end things.” She added: “But it’s so hard because he’s my soulmate.”
Anubhav and Shilpa met when he was directing Dus, a Bollywood thriller, in 2005. In the film Shilpa plays a secret agent working for the anti-terrorism department. Within weeks of filming, the pair became close and started spending more time together off set. The friend said: “When they travelled to Canada to shoot scenes for the movie, the couple became more than just friends. Shilpa thought they clicked. There was so much chemistry between them and they could talk and laugh for hours.”
Anubhav had already left his wife of 10 years, Ratna, a video director, and mother of their son and daughter, aged six and four, before meeting Shilpa. A friend of the director said: “Anubhav and Ratna have always had difficulties getting along. The problem is not other people, but the couple themselves.” Shilpa told her friend: “We can’t been seen as a couple when he’s still not divorced because my reputation will be ruined. In India you can’t get together with a married man. Especially one who has children. It just doesn’t work like that – even if he and his wife have already split and are living apart.”
The pal said: “Shilpa is torn between her parents and the man she loves. She comes across as happy-go-lucky where love in concerned but the truth is,she’s hiding a very big secret, even from those closest to her. She’s found the man she wants to spend the rest of her life with, but can’t be with him.”
Last night Anubhav said: “I only know Shilpa as an actress and a friend.”
Shilpa also talked to the friend about her relationship with cheating Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar. She started seeing the Indian heart-throb after they starred together in 1994 blockbuster Main Khiladi Tu Anari. Six years later he broke her heart by cheating on her with her friend and fellow actress Twinkle Khanna. But Shilpa told the friend how she had bumped into Akshay, who is now married with a four-year-old son, on a plane – and he flirted with her “outrageously”. She told the pal: “Akshay cheated on me once, and I stupidly took him back. But the second time, he left me for another actress. And then I found out that he had been two-timing me all along. But recently I met him on a plane and he flirted outrageously with me. I was shocked and told him where to go.”
Shilpa has also been upset by rumours about her parents’ past. In 2003, her dad Surendra was held in jail for two weeks after allegedly hiring gangsters to intimidate a man who owed her money. But he was released without charge. In 1998 Shilpa modelled for a company called Praful Sarees – but only received £58,000 of the agreed £348,000 fee. Five years later police revealed that Praful Sarees’ owner Pankaj Agarwal had received threats from underworld figures demanding money on behalf of the Shettys. The pal added: “Her father was in jail for two weeks. It was one of the hardest things Shilpa’s ever had to deal with.”
Her mum Sunanda – who is also her manager – was also accused of having links with the Mumbai mafia, although she was never charged and has always denied the claims. Shilpa’s spokesman Max Clifford said last night: “I’ve spoken to her mother and she says it’s not true.”
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