Hyderabad: Musician couple Sonali and Roop Kumar Rathod’s love story continues to enchant many.
First, Hyderabadis make for the best listeners of ghazals and shers. Performing at a concert in the city, they worked their magic on the audience with their wit, shero-shaayari and songs from the era of Madan Mohan and Lata Mangeshkar to A R Rahman’s Khwaaja Mere Khwaaja, which had everybody in the audience humming and clapping along.
The second reason is the most ‘memorable’. Roop Kumar says: “It was in Hyderabad, in 1984, that we first confessed our love for each other. We went to a mela and got on to the giant wheel. As the wheel started, Sonali panicked and clutched my hand and said ‘I love you’.”
Their love story was the talking point of the 1980s. That’s because Sonali was married to Bhajan singer Anup Jalota, when she fell in love with Roop Kumar. They courted trouble not just with their families, but also their music labels.
They tied the knot in 1989 and are looking forward to celebrating their 25th anniversary this December. Roop Kumar says: “We are not husband and wife, we are still ‘lovers’.”
Their daughter, Reewa, is also getting ready to be a career musician. She is a student of Hindustani Classical music exponent Rajan Mishra and her parents. She composed a track for a Spanish film, Traces of Sandalwood, screened in Cannes.
The trio will soon be working together.
