Jaya Bachchan (nee Bhaduri) first laid eyes on Amitabh Bachchan when she was still a student at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. The two were years away from becoming stars, but knew that they had something special. A short while later, when they met each other again on the set of Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Guddi, they knew that they were in it for the long haul. While Jaya sensed some “danger” for he could “dictate” her, she felt that he was the only one who could have that kind of authority over her, and she allowed him to have that position in her life.Jaya thought Amitabh was a ‘strange man’In a chat with Bhawana Somaaya for her 1999 book ‘Amitabh Bachchan: The Legend’, Jaya said that when she met him on the set of Guddi, he kept staring at her and she was quite “embarrassed” by his behaviour. “I thought to myself, ‘What a strange man… How can he stare at people like that?’” It was much later that she realised that he did it “unconsciously” and never realised how this behaviour of his “intimidated” people. At this time, Jaya was supposed to star with him in Guddi. Amitabh and Jaya met way before they became stars. (Photo: Express Archives)ALSO READ | Films, people who made Amitabh Bachchan a superstar: The ‘angry young man’ who defined the 1970sJaya, in a chat with Khalid Mohamed for his 2002 book ‘To Be Or Not To Be: Amitabh Bachchan’, said that she was “secretly pleased” when she learnt that Amitabh would be a part of the film. However, he was later dropped from it as Hrishikesh Mukherjee wanted a new face for the film. Bachchan, by then, had appeared in Saat Hindustani.Jaya saw ‘danger’ in AmitabhYears later, Jaya recalled the early days of their relationship and told Simi Garewal, “When I first met him, I saw danger.” Amitabh, who was sitting next to her, was shocked when he heard this. “I got frightened because he was the only one who, out of a lot of people that I’ve known, could dictate things to me and I allowed him to do that,” she said and added, “(But) It’s not like he would dictate things to me. It’s just that even if he said something to me mildly, I’d do it. I’d want to please him. That’s something that does not come to me easily and naturally, to want to please people.”Before Amitabh was dropped from Guddi, Jaya and Amitabh had started hanging out together, albeit in groups. They were both living alone in Mumbai (then Bombay) and found that their life was taking a similar path. As they spent more time together, Jaya sensed a spark, but being the kind of man that he was, he never brought it up. They both knew they liked each other, but none of them was taking the initiative to label the relationship. “I could see clearly that he enjoyed my company, but beyond that there was no proof of his fondness for me. He was too refined and reserved to ask me openly,” she told Bhawana. Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan were in love, but never dated in the traditional sense of the word. (Photo: Express Archives)Such was his affection for her that Amitabh drove for five hours from Mumbai to Pune just so he could attend Jaya’s convocation at FTII. This was an act of love for Jaya who was “extremely touched.”. During this phase, he would often gift her Kanjeevaram saris because he felt that she really looked good in those. She told Khalid, “Funnily enough, most of the saris were white with a purple border, purple a colour which does not suit me.” She later wore some of these sarees in their 1973 film Abhimaan.Story continues below this adAmitabh wasn’t an ‘easy boyfriend’While filming for the 1972 film Ek Nazar, the relationship got serious after the two got into a major fight in Pune. After they resolved the fight, Jaya knew that things had changed for the better, as now they had been through a rather difficult argument. “Those days, his constant line was, ‘I care for you, do you?’ But these lines were always uttered in passing, always said as a joke, never seriously. He never ever officially proposed to me. Until the very end, I was unsure of what he thought of me,” she told Bhawana.They never dated in the traditional sense of the word, but knew that they were together. She felt he “wasn’t an easy boyfriend” as he was “introverted and hypersensitive.” Nevertheless, she coped, as by this time, she knew him well.ALSO READ | After near-death experience, Amitabh Bachchan was reborn as a Batman-coded superhero ‘Supremo’ in 1980s comic bookThe subject of marriage had come up a few times but never discussed seriously. Jaya was living with a few of her relatives in Mumbai and after appearing in a few successful films, she wanted to get a house for herself. As Amitabh accompanied her from house to house to select a new accommodation, he found faults with many of the houses and wondered why she even wanted a house for herself. “Why do you need to buy a house? Don’t you want to marry me?” he would ask. But Jaya knew that he was “old-fashioned” and that this comment was being made “as a joke.”Story continues below this adZanjeer got them get married quicker than expectedAmitabh and Jaya’s careers were starting to go in different directions by this time as she was the next new star on the block, and Amitabh’s projects were tanking one after the other. When he was cast in Zanjeer, none of the female stars wanted to star in the film, as there wasn’t much to do for the female actor. Jaya agreed to do the part only because she would get to spend some time with Amitabh. In the documentary Angry Young Men, Jaya recalled, “Salim-Javed were very straightforward. They had tried a lot of other women actors, but of course, they all had refused. And they said, ‘you can’t say no, we need you’. Of course, another temptation was my co-star. So I thought at least we’d get to spend some time together.” Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan got married after the release of Zanjeer. (Photo: Express Archives)Zanjeer changed Amitabh Bachchan’s fortune, and soon after the two tied the knot. Along with their friends, they had thought of taking a trip to London after Zanjeer’s success. When their parents learnt that they were going to London, they insisted that they get married first, so within a few days’ time, they tied the knot. But the marriage came with a condition that Jaya happily accepted.On her granddaughter Navya Naveli Nanda’s podcast, What The Hell Navya, Jaya recalled, “We had decided we will marry in October, because by then my work would have reduced. But he had told me, ‘I definitely don’t want a wife who will be 9 to 5. Please work, but not every day. You choose your projects and work with the right people’.”The marriage has lasted over five decades, and during this time, they have been through various ups and downs. “People often ask me if marriage to a superstar is difficult. Whenever two sensitive, creative people are put together, it’s the easiest situation to create disharmony,” she told Bhawana 27 years ago but shared her mantra that held true for her, at least until 1999, “I know exactly when to speak to him and when not to.”Story continues below this adAmitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan are parents to two children – daughter Shweta and son Abhishek. They are grandparents to Agastya Nanda, Navya Naveli Nanda and Aaradhya Bachchan.