Naseeruddin Shah shares that there was the time when his mother told if he wanted to let her wife Ratna to change the religion but he refused to do so. He says – “I am really furious with the way divisions are being created, like the love jihad tamasha in UP. Firstly, the people who coined this phrase don’t know the meaning of the word jihad. I don’t think that anyone would be so stupid to actually believe that Muslims will overtake the Hindu population, it is unimaginable. For that, Muslims will have to have so many babies. So, this whole notion is unreal.”
Taking about Love jihad, Naseeruddin Shah says – “They not only want to discourage inter-faith marriages but also curtail social interactions between Hindus and Muslims.”
Naseeruddin Shah shares – “We have taught our children about every religion. But we have never told them that they belong to any particular religion. I always believed that these differences would slowly fade away. I believed that my marriage to a Hindu woman would set a healthy precedent. I don’t think this is wrong.”
Taking about an instance from his life, Naseeruddin shares – “My mother who was uneducated, brought up in an orthodox household, prayed five times a day, observed Roza all her life, went for the Haj pilgrimage, she said, ‘The things that have been taught to you in your childhood how can that change? It is not right to change one’s religion’.”