Scandal Point: When Jaya Prada Married The Much Married Shrikant Nahata

What’s it about these South Indian  divas  opting for marriage  with already-married men? Whether  it  was Vyjanthimala,  Hema Malini or Sridevi, they  all chose to tie the  knot with men who were already married.

With Jaya Prada the  shock waves that went through the  film industry when she tied  the  knot with the much-married, father of 3, Shrikanth Nahata was palpable  even where I  was  at that time.

This was  1986 and I was  in the home of the irrepressible the one-and-only  Manmohan Desai. He  was  playing song-after-song from his  underproduction film Ganga Jamuna Saraswathi which  starred Jaya Prada in  the title  role.

Suddenly Manji sprang  up  from his chair and said, “Why did she have  to get married? Now  she  will get pregnant. My film will suffer.”

Desai wanted a no-pregnancy clause  in all his future  films. The  leading men were very relieved to know they didn’t have  to sign  it.

Well, Jaya Prada never  did become a mother.And we really have  very little information on what  happened  to her marriage and husband. Times have changed.  Actresses  like Aishwarya  RaiBachchan, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Deepika Padukone and  Sonam  Kapoor are married and  working without  directors asking them  for outrageous assurances  like the one that  ManmohanDesai wanted   from  Jaya Prada.

Incidentally where  is  the aforementioned Mr Nahata? Apparently  Jaya Prada never divorced him.So he is  officially  still her husband. But we  haven’t seen him around her  for years.