Here's a synopsis of the story up to Aditya and Imlie's forced marriage:
Dev Chaturvedi, a poor but supposedly talented up and coming artist met Miss Moneybags, Anu and she fell in love with him and they got married. They had a daughter, Malini. Dev then went to Pagdandiya to paint a series of paintings on village life and whilst doing so met and supposedly fell in love with village belle, Meethi. He got intimate with her but neglected to tell her he was already married. He eventually went back to Delhi but left Meethi believing she was in a committed relationship with him and he was gonna come back for her though they didn't marry or anything like that. Once in Delhi Dev changed his mind and decided to stay with Anu. Anu through some sixth sense correctly deduced Dev had been unfaithful and became embittered and repeatedly lashed out at him even in front of their daughter but Dev neither admitted nor denied the accusation.
Meanwhile, before all this, Meethi our village belle had had a secret admirer in the form of Satyakam. At the time Satyakam was just a regular, and most important unmarried local farmer who dreamt of marrying Meethi. Meethi however fell pregnant from her encounter with Dev and being the original proponent of the one man for seven lifetimes ideology opted to wait for Dev, a wait that lasted all of 19 years. Satyakam still offered to marry the pregnant Meethi but she refused citing her one man for seven lifetimes principle. Satyakam became disillusioned and henceforth basically took a dislike to all city-born men. He became a local leader and often lead objections to unfair government practices which led to him falling foul of the law and being labelled a rebel. Meethi gave birth to a daughter, Imlie and Satyakam took Imlie under his guidance and became her Dadda. He loved her and she him and he taught her a helluva lot, including shooting a gun. Her whole fearlessness and lioness like persona are mostly from him. In spite of all this and just because of her illegitimate tag Imlie was treated rather harshly by the villagers including Meethi's own stepmom who Imlie grew up calling Nakli Nani. The villagers ill-treatment did not deter or depress Imlie though and she grew up an intelligent and feisty girl, a state-topper who had ambitions of being a policewoman. At that time Imlie had no ambitions whatsoever of being married.
One day when Imlie was 18 and in her final year of school a storm in the name of a journalist called Aditya Kumar Tripathi arrived in Pagdandiya, intent on conducting an interview with the now reclusive Satyakam who was now officially on the government's wanted list. Aditya was an award winning journalist from Delhi who was in a 7 year relationship with a girl called Malini who was the daughter of Anu and one Dev Chaturvedi who happened to be the unknowing illegitimate father of Imlie. Malini and Aditya were even intending to marry pretty soon after his visit to Pagdandiya. Noone however was aware of this fateful connection. Anyway Imlie and Aditya happened to meet by coincidence and with a little help from Imlie Aditya managed to land an exclusive interview with Satyakam. The piece Aditya wrote on Satyakam was objective and showed Satyakam in a positive light which earned for Aditya Imlie's admiration. She took him on a sight seeing tour of Pagdandiya but whilst they were doing that there was a fierce rainstorm which resulted in them seeking shelter overnight in a thatched hut. Nothing in the least untoward happened between them that night but unfortunately for them next morning the villagers caught them and jumped to the wrong conclusion. Led by Nakli Nani they gave Aditya two choices, either they kill him or he marries Imlie. Aditya, thinking of his fiancée, Malini waiting for him refused marriage with Imlie and opted to die instead. The villagers tied him up and were about to grant his wish until at the last moment Imlie stepped in and offered to marry him to save his life. So that's how Aditya and Imlie were forced to marry under gunpoint. After the marriage ceremony Aditya and his newly forced bride climbed atop of the bus and headed to place where Imlie knew noone and had never even been to before, Delhi.