08-07-2025
Neena Gupta Recalls Her 'First Love' With An IITian: ‘My College Fellows Were Jealous'
Neena Gupta looks back at her first marriage. She also talks about how she never experienced the love she sees in movies and read in books in real life.
Neena Gupta is an open book. She has never shied away from talking about her past relationships. Her first marriage was with Amlan Kusum Ghose. It was a short-lived union and the duo amicably parted ways within a year of their marriage. Following a brief engagement and another relationship with former West Indies cricketer Vivian Richards, she tied the knot for the second with Vivek Mehra, a New Delhi-based chartered accountant in a private ceremony in the United States in 2008.
Now, speaking exclusively to News18 Showsha, Neena opens up on meeting her first husband and how one of their first dates went wrong due to her classmates. 'My first love was with an IIT guy, who I went on to marry eventually. My college fellows used to be very jealous of me at that time. Their parents wouldn't allow them to war spaghetti straps and I was a modern woman, according to them. Woh salwar kameez-chunni waale the aur woh mujhse jalte the," she recalls.
The actor, who was recently seen in Metro In Dino, further continues, 'This one time, my then-boyfriend and I decided to go watch a film. I revealed my plans to one of those girls by mistake and then they went and told my mother that main ek ladke ke saath picture dekhne jaa rahi hoon. My parents didn't let me go to. Back then, we didn't have phones and so, I couldn't inform him. He kept waiting for me."
But in a surprising turn of events, she reveals that barring one relationship, she found herself questioning if she has even fallen head-over-heels in love with a man. 'I've never been in love. The love that I see in movies and read in books, I've never experienced that in real life. Nobody has loved me like that. Toh main bhi kaise kar loon? Karna bhi toh padhega na kisi ko. Mere peeche koi paagal nahi hua (laughs). But I had madly fallen in love with someone. It didn't translate into a relationship because it wasn't possible," she shares.
According to Neena, the biggest issue that couples deal with is opening up to each other about their deepest vulnerabilities. And that, she believes, often resurfaces during arguments, leading to heartbreaks and breach of trust. 'I often tell Masaba (Gupta) to keep her personal emotions to herself and not talk about it to anyone. I tell her to not talk about her past. The idea is to be in the present," says Neena, who became a grandmother in October last year.
The other thing that the Badhaai Ho and Uunchai actor feels has further complicated modern-day relationships is dating apps, which has made people commitment phobic. 'I know of young people who're sick and tired of dating apps. I'm shocked! I never wish for dating apps to exist during my time. I would say that I'm very old school and I prefer to wear pure cotton and pure silk rather than synthetic fabrics. Dating apps too are synthetic," she remarks.
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