Farhan Akhtar and Shibani Dandekar met while working together and faced some bumps in their relationship before finally tying the knot in 2022. Like many public figures, they dealt with their fair share of trolling given their interfaith marriage. Shibani recalled how she was hit with labels like “gold digger” when she started dating the actor-filmmaker. People would even say that she was a nobody before marrying Farhan Akhtar.
In a recent chat with her BFF Rhea Chakraborty on her podcast, Chapter 2, Shibani Dandekar opened up on the incessant trolling. She said, “I think social media comments should only strike a chord with you if there is any kind of truth to it that you believe, and that impacts you somehow. If there is no basis for that comment, or whatever that people are saying, how can something that is so untrue can affect you?”
Recalling her experiences, Shibani said that when she began dating Farhan, people often called her a ‘gold digger’. She recalled, “On a daily basis, when I started my relationship with Farhan, people used to say these two things to me– ‘love jihad and gold digger’. What am I supposed to do with that? I am not going to cry myself to bed because people are saying these things. I am not a gold digger, and the truth of the matter is that he does come from a Muslim home, and I do come from a Hindu home, and we got married, and we are very happy with our marriage. That’s the reality of our situation. So, people can say whatever they want about us, it is what it is.”
Shibani said that instead of worrying about negative comments, she thinks about her own life. “I get comments like, ‘Who is she?’, ‘Who was she before marrying Farhan Akhtar?’ and I am going to sit and read that comment, and think ‘S**t, have I done anything with my life, was I anybody before I married him?’ or do I know I lived a whole 39 years before I met him. Am I going to believe some random person or am I going to believe my own journey? There is also a difference between what is true and what someone is saying to get at you, to cut you off the knees, to feel like you don’t matter, to put you in a position where you feel weak. To be able to understand and decipher that is very important,” she said.
After four years of dating, Shibani Dandekar and Farhan Akhtar got married on February 19, 2022. They exchanged vows in a cozy ceremony at Farhan’s Khandala farmhouse, keeping it intimate with just family and close friends. The couple then celebrated in style with a reception at his Bandra home on February 21. Farhan Akhtar was previously hitched to Adhuna Bhabnani, and they share two daughters.
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