A reliable source says this guru-shishya love affair has been cooked up only to get eyeballs for Bigg Boss 12.
Mayur Lookhar
Viewers were stunned when the opening episode of Bigg Boss 12 went on air on Sunday.
The show's format is a little different this year, with some of the contestants entering as pairs.
The makers even have a term for it: vichitra jodi, or odd couples.
And few things are weirder than watching 65-year-old bhajan king Anup Jalota admitting to a relationship with his student, actress-singer Jasleen Matharu, who is 37 years younger.
It was hilarious and awkward not just for the audience but also for 'Bigg Boss' Salman Khan, who seemed short of words while interacting with the two.
Jasleen Matharu, Anup Jalota confess love, relationship on Bigg Boss 12
While the couple has vowed to come out in the open on the relationship, their choice of the Bigg Boss house to do so has shocked the Matharu family.
“This news was a shocker for me as well as for my family," the actress's father Kesar Matharu told The Times of India newspaper. "However, I don’t want to comment on her personal life until I meet her. She is in the Bigg Boss 12 house and we want her to stay positive and emerge as the winner of the show.”
While love knows no barriers and Indian society has seen such relationships in the past, it is hard to recall a moment where two people have chosen such a public platform to open up.
Until Bigg Boss 12, not many had an inkling of this love story. Jasleen Maharu is a name that most people may not have even heard before. How and when did this guru-shishya relationship blossom into love?
While viewers can expect Jalota and Matharu to talk about it on the show, a reliable source tells us things are not what they appear to be. A friend of Jasleen told a source this is a fake relationship.
“This is a totally fake relationship," the source told Cinestaan.com. "I had spoken to one of Jasleen’s friends, who categorically stated that all this has been cooked up to get more eyeballs for the show. Barring ex-cricketer Sreesanth and Jalotaji, the show does not have any other celebrated name. So, this relationship has been created to get the buzz around the show.”
The source even denied the possibility of a platonic relationship between the two. “How often have we seen these two together in public? Don’t be surprised if, at the end of the show, they announce their break-up. All this appears scripted,” said the source.
What is not scripted is the series of ups and downs Jalota has seen in his personal life. The singer, aged 65, has been married thrice. He was first married to singer Sonali Sheth, who was a music student then. Sheth married Jalota against her parents’ wishes. But the couple divorced later and Sheth married singer-composer Roop Kumar Rathod.
Meanwhile, Jalota had an arranged marriage with Bina Bhatia but that too ended in divorce. The singer then married Medha Gujral in 1994, who was earlier married to filmmaker Shekhar Kapur. This marriage had a tragic ending when Gujral died in 2014 in New York.
