When Love Needs a Press Conference: The Real Kerala Story Featuring Monalisa Bhosle

On March 12, a newlywed couple found themselves holding a press conference to justify their marriage. This unusual event unfolded simply because theirs was an interfaith union between a Hindu woman and a Muslim man.

Monalisa Bhosle, who went viral during her appearance at the Maha Kumbh Mela 2025, married her actor-model boyfriend, Farman Khan, at a temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. The couple, who hail from Uttar Pradesh, chose to marry in Kerala, citing the state’s secular ethos and its relative tolerance towards interfaith relationships.

Their anticipation of scrutiny proved correct. Soon after the wedding, the media and social media alike were flooded with speculation about the marriage. Among the rumours circulating online, one question dominated: was this a case of “love jihad”?

However, in this Kerala story, the duo vehemently defended themselves against the divisive eye of the media to the extent that Khan produced documentation of Bhosle’s Aadhaar card and birth certificate to prove that she was not a minor. The 18-year-old bride stated outright that the marriage had not been forced upon her. “I got married according to Hindu rituals. It is not ‘love jihad’. I respect all religions and consider every religion equal,” she said.

This case of over-speculation and scrutiny that is being felt by Khan and Bhosle is one that resonates with other interfaith couples who find themselves having to escape society and religious bounds, all for the sake of love.

This news comes in the pulse of Kerala Story 2,  in which the propaganda of Hindu-Muslim marriages being love-jihad cases has been fed to the nation.  The film remains controversial for its alleged misrepresentation of Islam and the state of Kerala.

The irony, however, is difficult to miss. The couple, now dubbed online as a “real-life Kerala story”, chose Kerala precisely for its reputation as a more secular and tolerant space for interfaith unions.

Plagued by irony, prejudice and religious anxieties, the debate around “love jihad” and interfaith relationships boils down to reveal a society that dictates who one can love— or rather, society reminds us through violence whom we cannot love.

Outlook magazine has long explored the complicated relationship between love and religion through its reportage and commentary.

In the 2022 issue released ahead of Valentine's Day, ‘All We Need Is Love’, Outlook navigated how love has always been a political act.

“I was madly in love with a girl outside my religion, and so was she. That was my crime,” Asad Ashraf, in the article War Against Love: Bogey Of ‘Love Jihad’ Ignores Ways Of The Heart, recounts the experience of a Muslim man who was arrested for trying to elope with a consenting Hindu girl. Tracing back to the very origin of ‘Love Jihad’, the writer exposes that this is not just a Hindu-Muslim issue.

Decoding heterosexual relationships in India, Haima Deshpande, in How Indian Laws Govern People’s Right To Love And Live, writes, “in India, only those relationships bet­ween a man and a woman are considered to be legitimate when there is a marriage between the two. A heterosexual relationship sans marriage is considered ill­egitimate in India. There is no particular law in India pertaining to live-in relationships. Therefore, there are no rights or obligations under the law for the parties in a live-in relationship. However, the judiciary has in many cases, ensured that there is no miscarriage of justice.”

Deshpande highlights landmark cases with accounts of live-in couples, homosexual couples and interfaith and intercaste couples.

The wedding press conference of Khan and Bhosle highlights an essential issue of Indian society: if all we need is love, why are there so many rules that restrain it?