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regular-article-logo Thursday, 09 May 2024

Malaika Arora talks marriage, divorce, love and trauma in Episode 1 of Moving in with Malaika

The reality show will drop new episodes on Disney+Hotstar at 8pm Monday to Thursday

Smera Marcia Toppo Calcutta Published 06.12.22, 04:36 PM

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Malaika Arora sent the internet into a tizzy when she posted a picture of herself with the caption ‘I said yes’ on Instagram in November, prompting speculation about an impending marriage. What the 49-year-old said yes to was a proposal to have her own reality show — Moving In With Malaika. The first episode of the show premiered on Disney+ Hotstar on Monday. Here’s what to expect.

Not a reality show like Keeping Up With the Kardashians

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If you — like us — thought Moving In With Malaika would get you up close and personal with Malaika in the reality show format of The Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives or Keeping up with the Kardashians, then you’re in for a disappointment. This one – at least the pilot episode — comes off more as a celebrity chat show, with Malaika facing the camera in her house and sharing selective things about her life.

Other than that, there are some video clips of Malaika doing yoga and spending time with her dog, Casper. A bunch of friends and family folks pop up now and then to talk about her. Among them are Malaika’s boyfriend and actor Arjun Kapoor, her mother Joyce Arora, her son Arhaan, and her close friends Kareena Kapoor Khan, Bharti Singh and Neha Dhupia.

Chaiyya Chaiyya with Farah Khan

The first guest, choreographer-director Farah Khan, entered Malaika’s house with a pressure cooker full of biryani for the model. Farah, who first met Malaika 24 years ago on the sets of Mani Ratnam’s Dil Se, revealed what is now widely known — that the dance number Chaiyya Chaiyya had landed on Malaika’s lap after five actresses, including Shilpa Shetty, turned it down.

A makeup artist recommended Malaika to the film’s makers for this song. Malaika matched steps with Shah Rukh Khan on top of a train and has since been known as ‘the Chaiyya Chaiyya girl’.

Life with ex-husband Arbaaz Khan

Chatting with Farah, Malaika shared bits and pieces of her marriage with and divorce from Arbaaz Khan, and finding love again with Arjun Kapoor. What Farah also didn’t know is that it’s Malika who had proposed marriage to Arbaaz.

“I wanted to get married because I just wanted to get out of the house, Farah. I am the one who proposed to Arbaaz. Nobody knows. It was not Arbaaz who proposed to me. It was the other way around. I actually said, ‘I want to get married. Are you ready?’ Very sweetly he actually just turned around and told me, ‘You pick the day and the place,’” said Malaika, who was married to Arbaaz from 1998 to 2017.

“A lot of me that I am today is also because of him, because he let me be the person I am today. We drifted. I was too young. I also changed, I also wanted different things in life. I think we were very irritable towards the end. We became very angry, negative people. And I think today we are better people,” said Malaika, tearing up.

Older woman, younger man

Both Malaika and Farah are in relationships with men who are younger than them, and both are vocal about the social scrutiny they face because of it. “It’s not been easy. And I face a lot of it on a daily basis, this whole thing of an older woman,” Malaika said.

While Farah has an eight-year-gap with her husband Shirish Kunder, Malaika and Ek Villain Returns actor Arjun Kapoor have a 12-year-gap.

“It is double standards of epic proportions,” Farah says. “Because a man, on the other hand, dating a 20-year-old, 30-year-old younger woman is applauded. He is made to feel that he is the king of the world. Whereas we are cougars, opportunists, cradle snatchers,” added Malaika.

“Whatever choices or decisions I have made, I’ve made them purely because I wanted to be happy, and at the end of the day, this man in my life makes me happy,” Malaika said while talking about Arjun.

A car accident and Malaika’s fear of driving

One of the things that Malaika speaks about in detail in this episode is the car accident she had on April 2 this year. The actress had to be rushed to the hospital after her Range Rover was caught in a three-vehicle pile-up.

“I was pretty badly banged up actually. I thought I had got disfigured. I thought I’d lost my sight because I couldn’t see anything for those couple of hours. There was so much glass shard in my eye and blood. I genuinely thought I wouldn’t survive and may not see Arhaan again,” said Malaika, adding that one of the first faces she saw after her recovery was that of Arbaaz.

The fear of driving that she developed since this traumatic experience will be explored in the second episode.

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