The Tamil cinema couple marked two decades together with a Christian vow renewal ceremony where their daughter stood as maid of honour and their son walked Jyotika down the aisle.
Twenty years to the week after they first got married in Chennai, Suriya and Jyotika stood at the altar again. This time their children did the honours. Diya, the couple's daughter, served as maid of honour. Dev, their son, walked Jyotika down the aisle. Jyotika posted the video on Instagram on September 15, calling it "The Sequel."
The original wedding happened on September 11, 2006, at Chennai's Park Sheraton, following Tamil tradition, with a mehendi function the day before. This one was different. A Christian ceremony, both of them in white, Jyotika in a bridal gown and Suriya in a tuxedo. By most accounts he was visibly moved seeing her in the dress.
Jyotika's caption did most of the talking. "A vow renewal, celebrating our 20 years of love and war," she wrote, adding that the day wasn't about pretending the marriage had been perfect. "This is not a celebration of a perfect marriage," she wrote. "This is a celebration of imperfections, of adjustments, of understanding, sacrifices, of loving each other selflessly." She spoke of waking up each morning next to a man who protects her, and of a life she called a gift because of her husband and her kids.
The backstory here is well worn in Tamil film circles but still holds up. Suriya and Jyotika met on the set of Poovellam Kettupar, though reports don't agree on whether that was 1991 or closer to 1999. Whatever the year, both were still climbing, and Suriya reportedly noticed Jyotika's effort to learn Tamil and her work ethic before anything romantic started. Things turned serious during Kaakha Kaakha, and the two were believed to have quietly gotten engaged around its release, partly so Suriya could buy time to bring his family around.
His father Sivakumar wasn't sold at first. In an interview with Galatta, Sivakumar admitted he resisted, until his son made it clear he'd rather stay unmarried than let it go. "Then I thought about how, over the course of my career, I acted in around 150 films, and most of them had the concept of love marriages," he said. "So I finally agreed."
Jyotika stepped away from acting after the wedding, a decision she's since clarified was entirely her own and not something imposed by Suriya's family. She returned to films at 35. The couple had Diya in 2007 and Dev in 2010, and have largely kept both kids out of the spotlight while running the Agaram Foundation, their education and social-work initiative.
No word yet on whether the vow renewal footage makes it beyond Jyotika's Instagram, but the internet's already found the clip.
Be the first to comment
Join the argument. No password, just your email or a passkey.