Actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub said his love story with Rasika Agashe felt natural from the start. He grew up in a home where two religions lived together, so marrying someone from another faith didn’t feel unusual.
The actor shared how friendship, art, and trust shaped their relationship.
In a conversation with Shubhankar Mishra, Ayyub looked back at how they tied the knot soon after finishing theatre school at the National School of Drama. Laughing about how early they married, he said, “Ours was a child marriage.” He added, “We got married right after passing out from NSD. It was my first successful love story. I thought this was the first time a girl has said yes to me, before she understands me fully, let’s rope in and get married to her.”
The actor explained that cultural and religious differences never created hurdles. With a Hindu Brahmin mother and a Muslim father, he grew up celebrating festivals and food traditions from both sides. “Love takes care of everything. It was not difficult. When it comes to cultural differences, it was easy for me as my mother is a Hindu Brahmin and since childhood, we would sit in Diwali Pooja and only eat vegetarian food while visiting my mother’s side, but when I was visiting my father’s side, we would eat non-vegetarian. So religion was not a problem, main difference was cultural, but the one thing that brought us together was art because we both were theatre enthusiast.”
Ayyub said their marriage was built on companionship more than grand gestures. “We became friends first and there was no proposal between us. After passing out, we realise that we want to spend more time together, and that’s why we got married,” he shared.
He described Rasika as the support system that helps him stay grounded while working. “She has become my anchor. It is like now I can go and explore my career and do whatever I want in my life, but in my heart, I know that she is there at home. This gives you a different strength.”
Speaking more broadly about marriages and public opinions, he said, “Everyone has their own experiences. I am just myself with my wife, and I don’t have to lie at all. She is my safe space.”
On what holds long-term relationships together, Ayyub pointed to emotional connection. “It also depends on how you fell in love. If you had lost yourself in love and found a new person, which was a combination of you and your partner, then you will be happy but if you had connected deeply, then it does not happen,” he said.
Ayyub was recently seen in Tere Ishk Mein. He made his film debut in No One Killed Jessica (2011) and later appeared in films such as Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, Raanjhanaa, Tubelight, and Article 15. His career includes major commercial hits like Tanu Weds Manu: Returns, Raees, and Mission Mangal.