Mani opens up about marriage, empowering Hira, and handling trolls

• Mani got married in 2008 due to societal pressure and an affair.
• He was a famous actor, and his wife, Hira, was his fan.
• Mani faced criticism for his unprecedented support of his wife, but he believes it’s a part of societal values.

Mani recently appeared on Ahmed Ali Butt’s podcast Excuse Me, where he opened up about marrying at the peak of his career, supporting his wife, and dealing with social media criticism.

Talking about it, he said, “I got married in 2008. I got married because my younger brother was getting married and due to a societal pressure that elder brother hasn’t married yet and younger one is getting married, I had to. Also, I was never serious about getting married. I just had an affair for around 6 months then I ran away from her but soon realized that Hira is the person I want to spend life with. At that time, I was quite famous and she was my fan. She used to watch me on the TV whole day and her family was quite against me. One fine day I contacted Hira and proposed her. Faisal Qureshi’s wife persuaded us to get married as soon as possible and we got married within two months of our decision.”

Mani added, “Many people are hurt by the fact that I supported my wife, but now we have actually stopped thinking about it. People call me someone who is blind in his wife’s love because of my unprecedented support. Let them be. We have forcefully become part of a value system on which we don’t allow our women too work, which is harming our society. People with regressive thoughts create agitation in society. I would have supported any girl entering the industry — I would have supported my daughter too. My father was a producer and actor; he allowed my sister to work. I also want my wife, my daughter, and my wife’s sister to flourish in this field. Success is in our house; it has shifted from me to Hira. Hira has improved herself so much as an actor”.

He further said that “the trolls and criticism don’t affect him anymore because Hira once advised him to stop reading all the comments and after that he was never bothered by hate or criticism.”

Here is the link to the video: