Mohit Suri is currently basking in the blockbuster success of his latest directorial Saiyaara, a film that has tugged at the nation's heartstrings and is rewriting box office records. But the man behind some of Hindi cinema's most passionate love stories, think Zeher, Kalyug, Aashiqui 2, and Ek Villain, isn't just a romantic on screen. He's a hopeless romantic in real life too.
In a candid conversation with NDTV, Mohit Suri opened up about how he manifested the love of his life and wife, actor Uditaa Goswami.
"I still feel like that boy who was sitting outside Amar Juice Centre in Mumbai, looking up at her hoarding from Paap (Uditaa Goswami's debut Hindi film which released in 2003), and saying I want to marry this girl. I didn't even know who she was. I just said it. And, I guess the universe was listening," said Mohit Suri, who directed Uditaa Goswami in his 2005 directorial debut Zeher.
Mohit Suri recalled telling Paap's director Pooja Bhatt, who is one of his first cousins, about the moment, never imagining that it would turn into reality. "I went for a (film) trial and Pooja introduced me to her. She said, 'Uditaa, this is Mohit. He wants to be a director, and he wants to marry you.' It was very embarrassing... But I guess that's when our love story really began."
Today, the couple has been together for over 21 years. They tied the knot in 2013 and are parents to two children. "Even now, I feel excited when she praises me, and upset when she doesn't talk to me. She fights with me sometimes and says, 'You've left all your emotions for your films.' But I'm still that same boy in love with her," the director said.
While Saiyaara continues to win hearts on screen, it's Mohit Suri's real-life love story that proves he's not just directing romance, he's living it.