It was a session of mutual admiration between Genelia and Riteish Deshmukh at the Screen Chatroom on Friday afternoon. The newly-wed couple, that had dropped in to promote their recent film Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya, reminisced about the last ten years they have been together. “We started dating right from our first film Tujhe Meri Kasam,” said Riteish. Genelia told us about how they went on from becoming friends to best friends and later on, inseperable friends. “Our relationship was a gradual process which finally culminated into marriage,” she says.
The two of them came into the industry at the same time in 2003. Riteish, the son of former chief minister of Maharastra Vilasrao Deshmukh, was from a political background while Genelia hailed from a modelling background. The two were quite naive during their first shoot and they helped each other get over the minor glitches. “We used to be so confused on the set and depended on each other for support. And most of the time, we just followed the director’s vision,” says Riteish. Their pairing, however, was liked by many and they went on to do another film Masti. “After Masti did well, we took a conscious decision of not doing films just because they were helping us spend more time together,” says Genelia.
So when the offer for Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya came after eight years, both of them signed it for the film’s content. “In fact, when the producer came to me with the script, I had no clue that Riteish had already been signed on. Riteish did not tell me because he did not want my judgement to be influenced by anything,” says Genelia. The film seems to have come at the right time for them and both are happy with the positive reviews that have come in so far.
The two, while constantly talking about each other’s good qualities, also threw in a few bits about their individual journeys. “I am what I am because of my career in the South,” said Genelia. Riteish, on the other hand, noted that working with directors such as Sajid Khan, Indra Kumar and Ram Gopal Varma had made him a better actor over the years. “I now want to try out something else. I would like to work with Anurag Kashyap and Vishal Bhardwaj since I haven’t explored their form of filmmaking yet,” says Riteish.
