One of the most graceful and favorite couples of Bollywood and TV world – Ashutosh Rana and Renuka Shahane recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary (Silver Jubilee) on 25th May 2026. Even though examples of their bonding are given today, do you know that there was a time when both of them never wanted to get married? The plan of both of them was to spend their life only as friends. Let us know at what point he changed his mind.
The journey started with an ‘unfinished film’ of Hansal Mehta
The first meeting of Ashutosh and Renuka is no less than a film story. The two first met during the preview of a film by filmmaker Hansal Mehta. Interestingly, that film was never released, but it changed the lives of these two great actors forever.
That era of landline and recording machine:
After the first meeting, Ashutosh had fallen in love with Renuka and wanted her number. He asked director Ravi Rai for Renuka’s number, but got the number with a ‘stringent condition’—the condition being that he was not to call Renuka directly after 9 pm, but only leave a voice message on her landline recording machine. Ashutosh left the first congratulatory message on Renuka’s landline on the day of Dussehra. After this Renuka sent a reply through Ashutosh’s sister and finally gave her mobile number to Ashutosh.
We kept talking on the phone for months without meeting
After getting the mobile number, a series of conversations started between the two, where both of them kept talking for hours on the phone without meeting each other for months.
Recalling this period in an interview, Ashutosh Rana said:
“I called her for the first time at 10 pm on her mobile and we talked for one and a half hours. Next day we talked again at 11 pm. We never met, but our friendship became very deep over the phone. We started talking three times a day. The funny thing was that Renuka did not like poetry at all and I loved poetry very much.”
Fear of breaking friendship and Renuka’s ‘surprise proposal’
Ashutosh had come very close to Renuka, but he was afraid to express his feelings. He was afraid that in the process of proposing he might lose his best friend like Renuka forever.
Eventually Ashutosh wrote a poem on love and recited it to Renuka. After listening to the poem, Renuka surprised Ashutosh and said directly, “Listen Rana ji, I think I have fallen in love with you.” Ashutosh also smiled and replied, “Okay, you come, we will sit and talk about it.”
When there was no marriage, both wanted to remain just ‘live-in partners’
The couple dated each other for three years before tying the knot. Ashutosh revealed that initially neither of them were in favor of getting married. Both of them believed that without getting married, they would remain devoted to each other only as good friends. Ashutosh was afraid that his nature or his relationship might change after marriage. Apart from this, there was a huge difference in the nature of both of them, due to which Ashutosh felt that the marriage might not be successful.
Father’s advice changed the decision:
Amidst this hesitation, Ashutosh’s father took entry. After several meetings and a lot of persuasion from his father, Ashutosh understood that it was necessary to give a name to the relationship. Finally he said to Renuka, “I have a request. I want to marry you. Will you do it?” Renuka also immediately said yes.
The wedding took place in the presence of 1.5 lakh guests
The marriage of the couple who was once shying away from marriage finally turned into a very grand and historic ceremony. According to Ashutosh, around 1.5 lakh people attended his traditional wedding. Today, even after a long time of two and a half decades (25 years), this couple is living a very happy and ideal married life with two children.
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