'If you want to marry, do it now': Ali Fazal reveals how COVID lockdown forced him and Richa Chadha into a last-minute wedding

Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal's love story began on the sets of ‘Fukrey’ in 2013, and after years together, the two finally decided to make it official. However, their wedding did not go quite as planned. What they had envisioned as a quiet and simple registered marriage quickly turned into a rushed, last-minute decision, as the sudden announcement of the COVID-19 lockdown forced the couple to speed up their plans dramatically.

Ali Fazal opens up about their chaotic interfaith wedding

In a candid conversation on Shekhar Suman's YouTube show Shekhar Tonite, Ali opened up about the unexpected twists and turns that surrounded their interfaith wedding. "When we decided to get married, COVID was just beginning to spread. For a court marriage, you have to register a month in advance, and the notice is put up publicly. A journalist got hold of it, and reports about our marriage started circulating," he said. Ali went on to reveal that the couple had put a lot of thought into choosing a date that would allow both their families to be present for the special occasion. But just before the ceremony was set to take place, an unexpected phone call from the court changed everything.


“The court informed us that a lockdown would begin the next day and everything would shut down. They told us, ‘If you want to get married, do it now.’ We were completely thrown off. Our witnesses lived far away, and we were scrambling to arrange everything at the last minute,” he recalled.

From borrowed witnesses to a last-minute kurta

In a rather amusing turn of events, the couple had to quickly round up whoever was available at that moment. One friend, who happened to be out on a date with his girlfriend, was called over along with her to serve as witnesses. Another friend was urgently contacted and asked to bring a camera along. To add to the chaos, Ali had nothing suitable to wear for the occasion, leaving his assistant to frantically arrange something for him at the last minute. "My assistant felt bad for me because I had nothing appropriate to wear. He somehow managed to get me a kurta, and that's how we got married," Ali said with a laugh.

From personal loss to a grand celebration across three cities

The couple had originally planned to follow up their quiet court marriage with a proper celebration, but fate had other plans. A deep personal loss forced them to put everything on hold when Ali lost his mother. "We were planning a simple wedding ceremony in April or May with my mother present. Unfortunately, she passed away, and those plans had to be postponed. We eventually pushed everything by a year," he shared. The two finally got to celebrate their love in a big way in 2022, with a grand wedding spanning across Delhi, Lucknow and Mumbai, filled with joy, festivities and the presence of close family, friends and colleagues from the film industry. Opening up about his feelings for Richa, Ali reflected warmly on how their bond grew over the years. "I was her fan before I became her friend. I followed the democratic way of entering a relationship, and I cherish that journey," he said.