What’s it about these South Indian divas opting for a marriage with already-married men? Whether it was Vyjanthimala, Hema Malini or Sridevi, they all chose to tie the knot with men who were already married.

With Jaya Prada, the shockwaves that went through the film industry when she tied the knot with the much-married, father of 3, Shrikanth Nahata was palpable even where I was at that time.

This was 1986 and I was in the home of the irrepressible the one-and-only Manmohan Desai. He was playing song-after-song from his underproduction film Ganga Jamuna Saraswathi which starred Jaya Prada in the title role.

Suddenly Manji sprang up from his chair and said, “Why did she have to get married? Now she will get pregnant. My film will suffer.”

Desai wanted a no-pregnancy clause in all his future films. The leading men were very relieved to know they didn’t have to sign it.

Well, Jaya Prada never did become a mother. And we really have very little information on what happened to her marriage and husband. Times have changed. Actresses like Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Deepika Padukone, and Sonam Kapoor are married and working without directors asking them for outrageous assurances like the one that Manmohan Desai wanted from Jaya Prada.

Incidentally, where is the aforementioned Mr Nahata? Apparently Jaya Prada never divorced him. So he is officially still her husband. But we haven’t seen him around here for years.

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