Bollywood actress Sonakshi Sinha has faced significant trolling due to her inter-faith marriage with Zaheer Iqbal. The couple chose a civil marriage, held at Sonakshi’s Bandra home on June 23. They had to disable comments on their official wedding and reception photos because of the negative backlash.
Sonakshi has indirectly responded to the critics of her inter-faith marriage on social media. She re-shared an Instagram story that highlighted love as “the universal religion.” She also commented on a post by Prasad Bhat, stating, “Truest words!! This is adorable! Thank you.”
Veteran actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha also defended his daughter, addressing those who labeled her marriage as “love jihad.” In an interview with Times Now, he said, “Anand Bakshi saab has written about such professional protestors, ‘Kucch to log kahenge, logon ka kaam hai kehna. To this I would like to add, ‘Kehne waale agar bekar, bekaam-kaaj ke ho to kehna hi kaam ban jata hai (For unemployed people, this is all the work they have).’ My daughter has done nothing illegal or unconstitutional.”
He further added, “A wedding is a very personal decision between two people; no one has the right to interfere or comment. To all the protestors I say – go, get a life. Do something useful with your life. Aur kucch nahi kehna (I have nothing else to say).”
Sonakshi and Zaheer were in a relationship for seven years before deciding to marry. Their wedding was a private affair, followed by a grand reception attended by numerous celebrities, including Salman Khan, Kajol, Vidya Balan, Rekha, Huma Qureshi, Aditi Rao Hydari, Aditya Roy Kapur, Tabu, and Anil Kapoor.