Kabir Khan and Mini Mathur have been married for around 25 years and in a recent interview, the filmmaker opened inter-religious marriage and how it was accepted wholeheartedly by both their families. “Her father said the difference between Khan and Khanna is ‘na’, which means non applicable,” Kabir told Humans of Bombay.
Being brought up in an inter-religious family himself, Kabir added that his parents’ love story is a “film script waiting to happen.” Hence, his kids have been brought up in a similar way. Adding that since he is an atheist, he and Mini have never really pushed their kids towards any religion. “The way we have brought up our children, is also the way I was brought up. We never really tried to push them into a direction. We let them celebrate and follow whatever they have a passion for. Because I think that’s the way you find your path,” he added.
He recalled how Mini expected some opposition from her extended family, but nothing of those sorts happened. “Mini comes from a very traditional Mathur family. Religion was never really an issue and initially, Mini thought that there would be an issue in trying to convince her extended family but it’s just so beautiful how they all accepted me,” he said. On his own family, Kabir said that since his family was already inter-faith, he did not face any resistance.
“We had a wedding, did rituals from both sides, more for the families than for us. I am actually an atheist so I don’t really truly believe in God and religion so it was very easy for me to sort of accept all that,” Kabir said, adding, “We’ve had many fights, we’ve had lots of issues but religion has never been one.”
Kabir last helmed ‘’83’, which featured Ranveer Singh playing the role of Kapil Dev, the Captain of the Indian Cricket Team during the team’s World Cup win in 1983.
