Prominent filmmaker Kuku Kohli died of a heart attack on Tuesday at the age of 77. He’s survived by his second wife and veteran actor Aruna Irani, and two daughters from his first marriage with Rita Kohli. Kohli was already married when he first met Aruna, three years older than him, for the shooting of his 1991 action adventure film Kohraam, headlined by Dharmendra.

Aruna Irani ‘hated’ Kuku Kohli when they first met

“I was doing a lot of films then to run my house, but they were not very great roles. I was very busy with my films in Chennai. That time, Kuku ji asked me for my dates for one month. I tried for a few days, and told them I couldn’t do the film. Kuku ji got angry. He didn’t like the idea. But we kept working. So even when I had no work but dates were given, he would call me, and I would get very angry,” recalled Aruna in an interview with Zoom a couple of years ago.

She recalled that Kohli would make her sit at the set for the entire day, only to take one shot. Admitting they were “at loggerheads”, Aruna recalled a change of heart happened very soon. “I used to hate Kuku ji, and he too had issues with me. Then I don’t know what happened, he started to soften and we became friends. Then he started adjusting my dates. And eventually, love happened,” added Aruna.

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Aruna Irani with husband Kuku Kohli at Aishwarya Pandit’s reception.

Aruna Irani ‘married a married man’

But there was a problem. Kuku Kohli was already married to Rita Kohli, with whom he had two daughters — Pooja Kohli and Karishma Kohli. So, when Aruna tied the knot with the filmmaker, he was already a married man. That’s why she decided to keep it a hush-hush affair. “I don’t know where this stupid news came from that I was not aware of his first marriage. His wife would come on the sets along with the children. I knew about it,” admitted Aruna.

“It was a tough decision to make,” she recounted, adding, “But he fought the world to marry me.” “I used to tell people that please, don’t talk about it… because I didn’t want to hurt anybody. My affair, my relationship with Kuku Kohli was not there to hurt anybody or snatch away somebody,” confessed the veteran actor in an interview with ANI three years ago. She claimed that while the industry and journalists knew about her marriage with Kohli, she would never talk about that on record.

Aruna Irani with her husband Kuku Kohli. )Express archive photo)

Kuku Kohli’s first wife ‘had problems’ with Aruna Irani

Another reason for keeping her marriage with Kohli a secret was the discomfort expressed by the first wife, Rita. But Aruna defended her actions by pointing out to some flaw in Kohli’s first marriage. “Aap dekhiye yeh jo wives hoti hain, voh hamesha dusri aurat ko gaali deti hain (Wives always blame the other woman). See, I am not responsible to keep you happy. Your husband is responsible. Hold him (accountable) first,” argued the actor.

“Maine koi ghar todne ke liye nahi affair kia (I did not have an affair to destroy someone’s family). But something happens, I don’t know what. Only a man would know or a woman would know as to why a third person enters,” said Aruna. “Marriage has no security, only love has security. If there is love, then you have a marriage, otherwise it’s just a piece of paper,” she added. It’s only after Rita died in 2022 that Aruna began discussing her marriage with Kohli openly.

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Why Kuku Kohli, Aruna Irani didn’t have children

A prerequisite that Aruna and Kohli decided right at the start of their marriage was that they’d never have any children of their own. “I got married to a married man. I am suffering. It’s my job. Let the pain be with me only. But if my child asks, ‘Where is papa?’, what do I say? If something happens to my child in the middle of the night, I can’t call him. So that’s why I never wanted a child,” confessed Aruna.

Revealing that she was born to her father’s second wife, she didn’t want to transfer the same trauma to her child. She admitted in an interview with Lehren Retro last year that she was ready to not have children, but didn’t want her child ro suffer because of her actions. Aruna also claimed that she didn’t have the courage that fellow actor Neena Gupta did, when she gave birth to designer Masaba Gupta out of wedlock after a short-lived affair with West Indies cricketer Vivian Richards in the late 1980s.

Aruna and Kuku Kohli were not only married, but also enjoyed an enduring professional collaboration. Before starring in Kohraam, Aruna also appeared in Kohli’s 1991 directorial debut Phool Aur Kaante, the action romance which also marked the debut of Ajay Devgn. She then starred in his hit action movies Suhaag (1994) and Haqeeqat (1995). Aruna also played Govinda’s mother in Kohli’s 1999 hit comedy Anari No.1.

After featuring in Kohli’s 1999 action crime drama Zulmi, she produced his 2002 romantic action thriller Yeh Dil Aashiqanaa, where she also played the protagonist’s mother. The only film of Kohli that Aruna didn’t feature in was his last directorial, Woh Tera Naam Tha (2004). While he retired from filmmaking, she continued to act in films, last seen in Vishal Bhardwaj’s romantic action thriller O’Romeo earlier this year.