Khargone, March 12 Monalisa Bhonsle, the young woman who gained fame during the Prayagraj Kumbh Mela last year, has married a Muslim man in Kerala against the wishes of her family, her relatives said in her hometown of Khargone in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday.
Bhonsle, from the town of Maheshwar, and a member of the nomadic Pardhi community, married Farman Khan on Wednesday at the Nainar Temple in Arumanoor, Poovar, according to her family members. They added that the two had first connected through Facebook about six months ago.
"On March 2, some people from Kerala came and told us that they could help my daughter get a job in the film industry and train her in acting. I went with her to Kerala. But there, she married one of them, Farman Khan. I opposed this, and asked her to return to Maheshwar, but she refused," her father, Jaysingh Bhonsle, said.
Bhonsle said he had approached the police in Kerala, but was told that Monalisa was 18 years old, therefore legally free to marry.
Her uncle, Vijay Singh Bhonsle, said that Monalisa turned 18 in January this year.
"Some people had lured her to Kerala, promising acting opportunities. We are not very educated, and we don't understand how this happened. Perhaps someone influenced her. The family has little choice but to accept her decision," he said about the marriage.
"Whatever is written in her destiny will happen. We only hope that she succeeds in her career and progresses in life," Vijay Singh added.
According to family members, Monalisa had previously signed a film titled 'The Diary of Manipur' by filmmaker Sanoj Mishra, and the money she received was used for her travel, accommodation, and training.
Her cousin, Jai Bhonsle, said that Monalisa had once expressed a desire to open a school in her area.
After news of the marriage spread, reporters who visited her house in Maheshwar found the family reluctant to discuss the issue. Her grandmother, Pramila, said that Monalisa had gone away for work related to the film.
"If she wanted to marry, she could have told us. We would have arranged it," Pramila asserted.
Mahendra Lodhi of Ujjain, who had been helping Monalisa with studies and acting training after her videos went viral, said he had spoken to her after receiving calls from her family.
"She told me that her family wanted to marry her off elsewhere, while she had already chosen someone, so she decided to marry him," Lodhi said. He claimed that Monalisa had been staying on rent in Ujjain while receiving training from him and had also signed a Telugu film titled 'Life'.
Jagdish Goyal, the officer at the Maheshwar police station, said that the family had contacted him several times regarding her whereabouts.
"I was not aware that she was in Kerala. Later, we contacted the concerned police station and obtained her location, so that the family's concerns could be addressed," Goyal said.
Earlier in the day, addressing a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram in the southern state, Monalisa had said that her wedding to a Muslim man was according to her choice and Hindu customs.
She rejected allegations that it was a case of 'love-jihad', a term used by right-wing groups to allege a conspiracy by Muslim men to lure Hindu women into relationships and marriage to convert them to Islam.
Bhonsle, the eldest of four children, said her parents wanted her to marry her paternal aunt's son, but she opposed the idea. She added that her father was upset with her.