Jaya Bachchan and Amitabh Bachchan's relationship had its share of uncertainty before they eventually got married in 1973. While they have been married for more than five decades, Jaya once revealed that understanding Amitabh during their early days together was not always easy. The actress described him as an “introverted and hypersensitive” boyfriend and recalled how she had sensed “danger” when she first got to know him.
Over the years, Jaya has spoken about their relationship in several interviews. Jaya first saw Amitabh when she was studying at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune. Their paths crossed again around the time of Hrishikesh Mukherjee's film Guddi, in which Jaya was supposed to star opposite Amitabh before he was eventually dropped from the project.
In her 1999 conversation with Bhawana Somaaya for the book Amitabh Bachchan: The Legend, Jaya recalled feeling embarrassed by Amitabh's habit of staring at people.
“I thought to myself, ‘What a strange man… How can he stare at people like that?'”
Jaya later realised that Amitabh did not do this deliberately. She explained that he was often unaware of how his behaviour affected people around him and how his gaze could intimidate them.
Meanwhile, Jaya was pleased when she initially learnt that Amitabh would be part of Guddi. In a separate conversation with journalist Khalid Mohamed for his 2002 book To Be Or Not To Be: Amitabh Bachchan, she recalled being “secretly pleased” about the possibility of working with him.
However, director Hrishikesh Mukherjee eventually decided to replace Amitabh because he wanted a new face for the film. By then, the actor had already made his film debut with Saat Hindustani.
Although they did not get to work together in Guddi, their relationship continued to develop outside the film sets.
During a conversation with Simi Garewal, Jaya spoke about the influence Amitabh had on her from the early days of their relationship. Her remark caught Amitabh by surprise when she recalled what she had felt upon meeting him. “When I first met him, I saw danger,” she said. Explaining her statement, Jaya said Amitabh was the only person she had known who could influence her decisions in a way that few others could.
“I got frightened because he was the only one who, out of a lot of people that I've known, could dictate things to me and I allowed him to do that,” she said.
Jaya clarified that Amitabh did not necessarily order her around. Rather, she found herself wanting to follow even his mild suggestions because she wanted to please him.
She said, “(But) It's not like he would dictate things to me. It's just that even if he said something to me mildly, I'd do it. I'd want to please him. That's something that does not come to me easily and naturally, to want to please people.”
Before their relationship became serious, Jaya and Amitabh often spent time together in groups. Both were living independently in Bombay, now Mumbai, and found that their lives were moving along similar paths.
However, Amitabh rarely expressed his feelings openly. In her conversation with Bhawana Somaaya for Amitabh Bachchan: The Legend, Jaya explained that she could sense his interest in her but was never entirely sure what he wanted from their relationship.
“I could see clearly that he enjoyed my company, but beyond that there was no proof of his fondness for me. He was too refined and reserved to ask me openly,” she said.
Jaya later described Amitabh as someone who “wasn't an easy boyfriend” because he was “introverted and hypersensitive.” She also admitted that he never officially proposed to her, leaving her uncertain about his feelings until the very end.
“Those days, his constant line was, ‘I care for you, do you?' But these lines were always uttered in passing, always said as a joke, never seriously. He never ever officially proposed to me. Until the very end, I was unsure of what he thought of me,” she told Bhawana Somaaya.
Despite the uncertainty, Amitabh found ways to express his affection. Jaya recalled how he once drove for five hours from Mumbai to Pune to attend her convocation at FTII. She was “extremely touched” by the gesture.
He also frequently gifted her Kanjeevaram saris because he believed she looked good in them. In her conversation with Khalid Mohamed for To Be Or Not To Be: Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya remembered that most of the saris were white with purple borders, even though she did not think purple suited her. She later wore some of them in their 1973 film Abhimaan.
Jaya and Amitabh did not follow a conventional dating pattern. They spent time together, understood each other gradually and avoided directly defining their relationship for a long time.
While filming the 1972 movie Ek Nazar, the two reportedly had a major argument in Pune. After they resolved the disagreement, Jaya felt that something had changed between them. Having worked through a difficult moment together, they appeared to have moved closer.
Marriage, however, was still not a subject they discussed seriously.
Jaya was living with relatives in Mumbai and wanted to buy a house of her own after appearing in several successful films. Amitabh accompanied her while she looked at properties but frequently questioned why she needed a separate house.
He would ask her, “Why do you need to buy a house? Don't you want to marry me?”
Jaya understood that Amitabh was old-fashioned and initially assumed that he was making these remarks as a joke. His indirect approach to expressing his feelings meant that she remained unsure about his intentions.
While Jaya's career was progressing, Amitabh was struggling to find success at the box office. His fortunes changed with Zanjeer, in which he played a police officer. The female role in the film was relatively limited, and several actresses reportedly turned it down.
Jaya eventually agreed to be part of the film, partly because she wanted to spend more time with Amitabh.
In the documentary Angry Young Men, which explores the lives and careers of screenwriters Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, Jaya recalled how the writers approached her about the role.
“Salim-Javed were very straightforward. They had tried a lot of other women actors, but of course, they all had refused. And they said, ‘You can't say no, we need you'. Of course, another temptation was my co-star. So I thought at least we'd get to spend some time together.”
Zanjeer became a turning point in Amitabh's career. Following the film's success, the couple planned to travel to London with friends. When their parents learnt about the plan, they insisted that the two get married first. Amitabh and Jaya got married within a few days.
Jaya later spoke about their marriage plans on What The Hell Navya, the podcast hosted by her granddaughter Navya Naveli Nanda. She recalled that they had initially planned to marry in October, when her work commitments were expected to reduce.
She also explained the understanding they had about her career after marriage.
“We had decided we will marry in October, because by then my work would have reduced. But he had told me, ‘I definitely don't want a wife who will be 9 to 5. Please work, but not every day. You choose your projects and work with the right people'.”
Amitabh and Jaya have now been married for more than five decades. They have two children, Shweta Bachchan Nanda and Abhishek Bachchan, and three grandchildren, Navya Naveli Nanda, Agastya Nanda and Aaradhya Bachchan.
