"WE'RE HAPPY EVERY MINUTE AND THAT'S ALL THAT IS NEEDED"
They say one small wave pulls in other big ones, the same way one stroke of luck ebbs along with it bigger tides of fortune. Last year, around this time, Karan Singh Grover met the delightful Shraddha Nigam. A few months later, he trusted his instincts and signed up the now hugely popular teen show, Dill Mill Gayye. Since then, life has begun looking up and how!
Karan has made hundreds of youngsters fall in love with him through his portrayal of Dr. Armaan Malik and the fan base seems to multiply by the minute. We met him precisely six months ago and he filled us in on his budding equation with Shraddha. The simple clich 'we just clicked' perfectly describes the couple's chemistry.
We decided to meet both of them, the haute Krishna of Krishna Arjun fame and the adored Dr. Armaan, for a sneak peek into their relationship. Here is the duo, talking about themselves and each other. For all you fans feeling jealousy spasms running down your spine, brace yourself for the cute and very much in love couple!
They have recently retuned from a rejuvenating trip to the sunny land of Goa and are still visibly in vacation mode. I ask Shraddha to trace us back to how they met. She begins, "It started, due to a common photographer friend, although indirectly, and I am very upset about that. I wish it was directly and I wish he would have got us together and said, 'Hey Shraddha meet this really cool guy and Karan, meet this awesome girl.'
But that never happened. We saw each other's pictures at his studio at different times. The first time I saw his pictures I thought he was really hot; I didn't fall in love or something but I thought he was a nice guy as I had heard nice things about him. Every time I saw him somewhere, I was dying to tell him, 'Dude, your pictures rock and I really like them a lot.' This was his story too; he liked my pictures too."
To this Karan adds, "Yup," in typical boyish manner. Shraddha laughs and tells me that now we all know who the chatty one in their relationship is. She continues, "We met at some random event and finally complimented each other over the pictures and that's how the conversation began. We then met at another friend's party, Sanjit Bedi, indirectly again and I'm upset with him too. We had come to the party and we landed up together after that." Karan points out that their friend wouldn't be too happy about the mention but Shraddha doesn't really mind. "He doesn't like playing matchmaker but he didn't do that anyway. I think he should be happy about it," she says smugly.
How long exactly has it been since they are together now? Shraddha replies, "It has been a year; one year one month to be precise." She suddenly turns to Karan and admonishes him for distractedly talking to his friend. She playfully hits him on his shoulder and Karan yelps out in pain. "Oh, I'm so sorry; that's the bad shoulder! Can I kiss it?" she tries to make up.
"It still hurts when you press against it," he sarcastically says and then as if realizing they're not alone, he adds, "I got hurt on my shoulder; it has got nothing to do with the interview. But I've hurt my shoulder and my girlfriend keeps hitting it; because she wants me to suffer," he dramatizes the scenario.
Karan and Shraddha show all the simple signs expected of two people dating each other for sometime now. They know each other's small pesky habits, simple day-to-day preferences and dislikes and also share an unconsciously secret coded language of their own, developed from stories and incidents that only the two of them know well. It's all very cute and heartwarming, minus the mush.
Well, the famous cup of coffee followed after that eventful night at the party and they chatted on well into the morning. Shraddha giggles as she recalls, "What was funny was that I lived hardly 30 seconds away from there and had got my car along. Mr. Karan Grover here, suggests that he drops me, in my car, to a place that is two blocks away!"
Karan interjects, "That's because I did not have a car at that time so I had to drop her in her car." Shraddha chimes in, "That's because you wanted to be with me, liar! He asks me, 'Can I drop you home?' and I was like, 'Uh, I have my own car.' The point is that even if you have a car and if I have my car then I don't need to be dropped. I thought in my mind, this guy is weird," she chuckles.
She paints the picture for us, "So, in that U-turn of dropping me home, which was less than 20 seconds I promise you, he asked for my address and which floor I lived on. When I asked him why was he inquiring about all this, he tells me that in case I change my mind about day after tomorrow's lunch, he would know where to find me.
And I'm thinking, 'Oh my God, he is a stalker!' The beauty is, I'm driving my car, the control is in my hand and even though I enjoy the talk and flirting with him, I'm dead sure that I want to call it a night. It is three o'clock and I want to go home and sleep. And I'm approaching my house and he goes, 'Hey, I'm not really sleepy, you want to do coffee?'
I'm driving and I look out the window thinking, 'No Shraddha, say no. It's three in the morning and there's this random guy and you want to go for coffee with him?' The next minute I turn to him and say, 'Yah, sure I'd love it," she says with a huge smile and bangs her head with her fists, feigning regret.
Keeping in mind, this was a tte--tte with them as a couple, I ask the pair to let us in on something we don't know about them - a quirk, an oddity. Shraddha immediately answers for them and Karan agrees, "Both of us don't comb our hair or iron our clothes. Ever. I don't own a brush or a comb, nor does he. And we love food; shit we eat so much. We went to Goa and between the two of us, we would order a table full of food and we have been asked if we are expecting more people to join us."
Coming back, Dill Mill Gayye has boosted Karan's popularity with the viewers to an unimaginable degree and Karan takes it well in his stride. There was a frantic fan who called screaming into the phone, 'Karan I love you' and I asked Karan how he handles all the attention on a normal day.
In all modesty he replies, "It just shows me that people are watching my work; that's about it; it comes with it. It has skyrocketed only after Dill…I have had people asking me how it feels to have my first show become a success. Then I tell them that my first show wasn't a hit and that's why they don't know about it. But it's nice; it's good. That sudden burst of fame after DMG…it is still bursting," he says gratified.
Shraddha adds her personal encounters with Karan's growing popularity. "I visited this one Internet site where there is a seven page discussion on his nostrils!" Karan acknowledges his craze and says, "Some of the fans that come to the shoots, all very sweet; each have about at least 700-800 pictures of me."
To which Shraddha says, "Some of them have those huge cards too; it is extremely overwhelming. I really want to stock all of this. It would be nice to look back on when you are 80 years old," she says wistfully. Karan only laughs, rolling his eyes and calls her 'My overoptimistic girlfriend."
Shraddha hesitantly confesses, "You know, I have this strange problem. Earlier I've had people who liked me and generally thought I was a decent actor; Shraddha Nigam rung a happy bell in people's minds. For a long time, all the women were so upset that he's dating someone that fans in general, started disliking me. And I was like 'What the hell! You're stealing all my fans; they don't like me anymore.'"
On a serious note, she adds, "It's all settled down now. People call for him on my phone and leave voice mail massages for me saying, 'We love you both together' and I thank God for that. Or else, I was so sure that I was going to be the most hated chick or something; I'm glad that didn't happen."
Karan is known to be a favourite among the women and is a self-confessed flirt. How does Shraddha deal with this? She smiles, "Yeah, yeah, everyone falls in love with him; it's a good thing." Karan blushes and adds mischievously, "No, there is a lot of lust also. There are no problems created as such; it is something that you expect will happen; and it happens," he says as if accepting it as part of the whole deal.
I tell Karan that we met with Sonia Singh and he laughs and nonchalantly asks, "You met Sonia; that's nice. And how was it? I meet her ever day. She is a sweet girl yaar; what can I say?" I ask him how he handles such predicaments. "I don't handle it; she is someone I work with and that's about it."
I move on to asking Shraddha about her hiatus from the television scene, since a while now. After Krishna Arjun, she seems to have slipped into exile. Shraddha protests, "You made me an obsolete person who hasn't faced the camera since 20 years!" Karan chips in for her and tells me that she was just on vacation. Is Shraddha's vacation coming to an end soon?
"It isn't anything like that. I haven't committed myself to a very continuous body of work but yes, I do pick up stuff that I like that comes along. I am happier that way till I don't come across something that I really love in a longtime, continuous sort of a way. It is not like I am not working. Probably, I haven't come in a way that people saw me in Chudiyaan and Krishna Arjun, the big one that went on for four years, has not happened.
But I am still working and I love my life; I am the kind who takes it easy."
Karan, on the other hand, has been widening his horizons. He was part of Bhram-An Illusion and is also working in Saurabh Shukla's I M 24. Karan says, "In I M 24 again, I have a small comedy role; it is a funny film. It should be out in another couple of months. I am open to anything that comes my way; anything that works out for the best."
Refreshingly, Karan has never been one of actors who complain about the workload of this industry or the tight schedules that come with being the lead actor in a daily. "I don't know but I have seen and noticed that I always have time for everything. I don't even have to make time; I just have it. I have time for my friends, I have time for my girlfriend, I have the time to go to the gym and shoot and watch movies and shop; I don't know how."
Shraddha reminds me that he does all this despite the fact that he shoots everyday for long hours. "He makes time to meet me and my parents; he makes it for everything. Well, it's simple; he's superman," she concludes. And Karan adds in a mock tone, "But don't tell anyone." Half to herself, she grumbles, "I sound like one of those fifth standard girls in love," and suddenly hits Karan (on the same shoulder).
I ask the duo what plans they have for the future and whether marriage and settling down is on the cards soon? In a coy manner, Karan replies, "I'll let you know." It was heard that the two of them had gone ahead and gotten secretly married. Shraddha acknowledges the rumours but passes them off as hearsay.
"Arrey, strangely enough, I've had people coming up to me on my shoots and checking my hand for a wedding ring in all excitement, 'You got married secretly and didn't tell us!' And I'm like, ' Really? We did?' There has been a lot of buzz in the air."
In a sudden surge of emotion, she adds, "On our part we're just happy. I'm happy hanging with him." Karan echoes the sentiment, "We are people who don't plan anything; we are happy every minute and that's all that is needed." This is their happy formula for love and like every couple in love, they too are looking far over the horizon into the realms of 'forever.' Let's hope no storm or rough weather hits their love boat!
**By Fatema Rajkotwala
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