'Nothing has changed since we got married'

According to newly-wed Soha Ali Khan, she and her husband and actor Kunal Khemu decided to get married on the condition that neither one of them changes after the ‘big day’. The actress was in the City recently to launch Ariel’s ‘His & Her’ pack where she spoke about her life after marriage (and more).

“Nothing has changed since we got married, which was the deal, because some people change. But that’s the person you marry,” she says. Kunal, who was also there, and Soha visited Nagarhole National Park as part of their trip to Karnataka. “We’ve never been there – we saw tigers and leopards. It was like our honeymoon because we never got a chance to go on a holiday after we got married.”

Reminiscing about the past, she says, “Our first date was brief. We went to a Chinese restaurant and Chinese food comes and goes quickly. Suddenly, dinner was over and we went separate ways.” After that came a string of fun night outs, “We watched movies together, had dinner and got to know each other better.”

She calls the rest “history”. “I met him seven years ago, while shooting for ‘Dhoondte Reh Jaaoge’, and we didn’t talk much then. On the second film, ‘99’, we got to know each other better. It takes time to get to know Kunal as a person and it took me nine months. Once I did get to know him, I liked him, and as they say, the rest is history.”

According to Soha, the key ingredients to a successful marriage are respect and love, of which the former is underplayed. “A person has to figure it out for themselves, marry the right person, marry for love and shouldn’t give up after the first fight. It takes a lot of commitment and hard work to live with someone and you don’t have to depend on someone 100 per cent to feel good, you can feel good from within yourself.”

Describing Kunal as a romantic, she adds, “His idea of romance is not necessarily buying things like chocolates and flowers (and neither is mine). It’s more about saying the right things – he writes poetry, composes songs on his guitar... He either makes up the song or sings contemporary Hindi tunes – his favourite is a song from ‘Barfi!’.”

Known for her discerning taste in fashion, she says she has become somewhat of a shopping addict these days. “I just discovered online shopping two weeks ago! I like shopping online because it comes to your house and you can return it; it’s amazing! It’s transformed my life.”

Although she frequents fashion runways, she claims she is terrified of the word ‘fashion’ and prefers the term ‘style’. “Style is for everyone while fashion is trend-based and keeps changing. You can see which direction fashion is heading. Style is something that everyone has or can have, irrespective of shape, size, age or weight,” she
sums up.