On May 6, actors Viraf Patell and Saloni Khanna got hitched in an intimate court wedding. The couple had been dating for over a year and a half and decided to take the plunge after getting engaged on February 20, earlier this year. It’s just been about 20 days since the big day and Saloni, who took Viraf’s last name to become Saloni Khanna Patel, is enjoying the bliss of married life.
When asked about this new phase of life, Saloni says ecstatically, “It’s been fantastic. It’s a new phase of life that we wanted to start much earlier but couldn’t due to Covid. But finally, this time we decided to go ahead and start our life as life goes on. We are in Delhi right now with my parents and having some great family time, which is impossible to have when we are shooting. We are all under the same roof, eating and chatting. There is so much love and laughter right now.”
Ask Saloni that considering Covid didn’t allow them to have a big wedding with loved ones around, did they plan to postpone the wedding to a time when things got better, and she responds, “We wanted to get married last year, but then Corona first hit us. So, we postponed the wedding to this year hoping we’ll have a ceremony when things will get better. In January, things had started kind of opening up and we had planned a May wedding accordingly, but then Covid hit us worse this time around.”
Saloni goes on to state that they give it a lot of thought before coming to the final decision. “We were thinking whether we should postpone the wedding again or not but then we came to a conclusion that life just goes on and doing this small gesture of going to the court and signing those papers would bring us and our family and friends so much happiness. So, it’s like a ray of hope and happiness in these really difficult times. We thought we should just go ahead but we didn’t do anything grand or have a big wedding. We kept it simple and safe and it brought a smile to the faces of everyone we know and that was more important,” she says gleefully.
Instead of spending lavishly on their wedding, Saloni and Viraf donated that money towards Covid relief work. “Me and Viraf understand that we are very fortunate to have a roof over our head, food to eat and are safe. We did have Covid, but we recovered. But we were feeling very helpless and thinking how could we help. Last year, we started a charity website but this year it wasn’t possible to do it again due to some reason. Since we weren’t having a big wedding and had money saved up for it, we thought donating it was the best way to spend it,” she shares.
Saloni points out that there are so many people out there who are doing so much, and they also wanted to help. “But it’s not about the money, it’s about wanting to do something in the best possible way and feeling less helpless about the situation. I know people who are making content to make people laugh, people who are teaching online classes for free or distributing food thalis. So, donating the money that we had saved up was the best way for us to help. It makes the money more useful and it’s better that way. It makes me feel less helpless,” she asserts.
During their wedding, what kind of got everyone’s attention and made news was the fact that instead of a wedding ring, Viraf gave a rubber band to Saloni. So, has it been replaced with an actual wedding ring yet? “It hasn’t been replaced yet and I don’t think it ever. I told Viraf not to replace it as I am going to cherish it forever. The rubber band made it memorable for me, I don’t think I need a ring anymore,” she smiles.
Saloni will next be seen in Sidharth Shukla and Sonia Rathee-starrer Broken But Beautiful season 3. It’s a story about two people in a complicated love story. But Saloni and Viraf’s love story was much simpler. “I met Viraf two years ago on a set and it was very apt as we both loved being on set. We became friends instantly as he is such a loving, kind and amazing person. I think, for him, he decided in just two or three meetings that he wanted to marry me, but I told him no then, as it was too soon and I wanted to know him more. So, I took my time of about a year and a half to say yes. We spent a lot of time together during this one and a half year, getting to know each other better, figuring out what we wanted to do with our lives and just talking. He is such an easy person to be around so I knew he is what makes me happy. So, we decided to go for it,” she signs off with a smile.
Image source: Parull Gossain Publicist