Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri got married in June, 1973. While they were dating at the time, one of the reasons they got married so quickly was the couple’s scheduled trip to London. Amitabh and Jaya made a pact with the team of Zanjeer that if the film succeeds, they would travel to London and celebrate.
However, Amitabh Bachchan’s father, Harivansh Rai Bachchan, was not on board with them travelling for a holiday before they got married. His father told him that if he wished to travel with Jaya, he would have to marry her first. The idea of an unmarried couple vacationing together did not sit well with him, reflecting the more traditional social norms of the time. Faced with this ultimatum, Amitabh and Jaya decided not to delay their future any longer.
“We were very conscious about not missing our flight. We were working on a film called Zanjeer. We felt that if the film succeeds, we’ll go on a holiday. There was a whole group with us. I had never been out of the country, nor had she. We said we’ll go to London. I went to tell my father that we are going to go to London if the film succeeds,” Amitabh recalled in an old chat with Komal Nahta.
“He said okay. He asked, ‘Kaun kaun jaa raha hai tumhare saath?’ I said, ‘We have a group.’ He asked, ‘Who all are there in the group?’ I said, ‘There is this person, there is that person, and there is Jaya.’ He said, ‘Jaya is also there? Okay, and you and Jaya want to go to London alone? You will not go without getting married.’ I said, ‘Okay, let’s have the wedding tomorrow,'” Big B added.
“So quickly we got everything organised and the next day we got married and Pandit ji ko paisa thamaya and bola ‘Jaldi kardo, flight ka time ho raha hai’,” he said. Speaking about the grand wedding ceremonies, Amitabh said, “I see all these weddings today, all kinds of preparations… Two people want to get married, just get married.”
The couple was already set to marry in October that year, but fate had other plans. What was initially just a celebratory trip quickly turned into a life-changing decision. The couple preponed their wedding and tied the knot in a simple ceremony on June 3, 1973. Soon after the wedding, the newlyweds left for their planned trip as husband and wife. It marked the beginning of a partnership that has lasted over five decades, weathering the many highs and lows of life in the public eye.
Over the years, both Amitabh and Jaya have occasionally spoken about this anecdote, often with a sense of fondness and humour. What began as a parental condition ultimately became the starting point of one of Hindi cinema’s most iconic marriages.
