Rati Agnihotri’s film career started in 1979 with a Tamil film titled, Puthiya Vaarpugal. She debuted in Bollywood in the year 1981 with the movie Ek Duuje Ke Liye. The film was a blockbuster, and there was no looking back for the actress after that.
By the mid of the 1980s, Rati Agnihotri had become one of the biggest stars of the Indian film industry, and she clearly had a very promising future ahead. However, around the same time, she bumped into a Mumbai-based businessman and architect, Anil Virwani, at a social event, and things changed. Despite her parent’s being against her relationship with Anil, Rati went ahead and dated him for quite a while. The two tied the knot on February 9, 1985, and the actress decided to give up her career for family.
In no time after her marriage, Rati was exposed to the real side of her husband. In the first year of their marriage itself, Anil started beating Rati. To her dismay, things just worsened as time moved forward. There were instances (reportedly) when he used to beat her up, and Rati had to run around the house to save herself from him. In 1986, the couple was blessed with their only child, Tanuj Virwani. Unfortunately, even the arrival of a kid did not change the equation between the couple, and Rati was subjected to domestic abuse for 30 long years!
All this while Rati was living an appalling life, but she always showed up with a happy face in front of the world and maintained that theirs was one happy family. But finally in 2015, she decided not to hold the broken pieces of her wrecked marriage anymore and moved out of her house. Talking about that incident, Rati was quoted by the newspaper as saying:
“I thought to myself that I am a 54-year-old woman and I will progressively grow older and weaker and then one day I will die, beaten to death.”
That was the day she realised it was time for her to move out of this marriage.
What took her so long to speak up?
Speaking about the same, she said:
Well, I had certain priorities, the biggest being my son Tanuj. He was the reason I put up with all this pain for 30 years. I also believed in the sanctity of marriage... I believed in love. Anil was the man I had married despite the fact that my parents had never liked him. And like every girl I'd dreamt of a picture-perfect life with a husband who cared and provided for me. For all these years I'd hoped... prayed... that things would change, that he would change.”
She added:
“There were times when I would tell myself I didn't have to smile so much, that it was all right to shed a tear sometimes, to frown occasionally, but I never did.”
After Rati came out in the open about her abusive marriage, the couple stayed separate for around two months. It was in July 2015, reports of the two coming back together and giving another chance to their marriage started doing the rounds. In fact, a source close to the couple was quoted by Deccan Chronicle as saying:
“It is for her son Tanuj’s sake.”
Later, Anil(her hubby) confirmed the news and said:
"Yes, things have become much better. Now, none of us wants to focus on the bitterness. It is behind us and we're back to our happy selves. I've known Rati for 33 years and that is a lot of time....you don't part ways just like that."
Jhanak
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