When Bobby Deol's wife Tanya met her in-law's Dharmendra, Prakash Kaur for the first time: ‘I was 19, wore a salwar kameez…'

Indian Express

14-05-2025

Bobby Deol has been married to Tanya since 1996. While the actor has starred in several romantic films in his career, his real life love story has not been less than a fairytale. He noticed Tania at a famous cafe in Mumbai for the first time, after which they bumped into each other a couple of times. Bobby chased the girl of his dreams by calling her and losing card games to her, eventually confessing his love for her and proposing her for marriage while driving her home. In an old interview, Tanya had revealed she was just 19 when she met Bobby's parents–Dharmendra and Prakash Kaur–for the first time and decided to marry him.
In an old interview with celebrity designer duo Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, Tanya shared Bobby first noticed her at Trattoria where she was with her brother and common friends. 'Bobby knew one of them. And then we bumped into each other a couple of times at night. I didn't say hello to him when I saw him because I didn't know him. I didn't bother. It didn't matter.'
After their unintentional meet ups at the cafe, Bobby and Tanya ended up meeting at Chunky Panday's Diwali party. 'Bobby came and he sat and played cards at the same table. He kept losing to me but he wouldn't pay me. He said. 'I will take you out for a meal.' I said, 'What's wrong with this guy?' And then a while later he called me up. It was some absurd hour at night and I was fast asleep. I picked up the call without knowing who it was and I said, 'I will call you tomorrow.''
As Bobby called her on the landline, Tanya couldn't figure who called her at night. 'The next day, I went and asked all of my friends whether they were the ones who called me and they all said no. He thought I was this snooty girl. A week later, he decided to try once again. He called me at normal hours and this time we spoke. And we spoke for like seven to eight hours that night.'
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They continued to speak for that entire week when Tanya realised she was in love with the movie star. She said, 'It was like a fairytale. We didn't even go on a date, we kept attending parties. This one night, he insisted to drop me home and at my door, he asked me to marry him.'
Tanya shared this news with her mother as her father was not in the town. 'My mom wanted to meet him. It took them just 15 minutes to vibe and act as it they knew each other for ages.'
Tanya then recalled meeting Bobby's parents, actor Dharmendra and wife Prakash Kaur, for the first time. 'I was all of 19–really quite nervous. I was dressed in a salwar-kameez. His parents were really warm and made me feel very comfortable, and at ease. They welcomed me with open arms.'
Six months later, the couple got married in a huge wedding with about 10,000 people in attendance. 'Initially, it was Bobby and me and eventually the family took over and we were just sidelined. We had a huge wedding. We had about 10,000 people', said Tanya.
Speaking to SCREEN, Bobby had also spoken about their love story, 'She's my woman, my life, everything. She is the best thing that could have happened to me. I met her, I chased her… she was from South Bombay, she didn't give me any attention, but I still chased her. Somewhere I knew, she will fall in love with me. And then she did. We met, and in two months, we decided to get married. By this time, my parents were just dying for me to get married.'