Abhijeet opens up about the woman behind his fame—Shilpa, his childhood friend, motivator and partner through every high and low

How I Met My Partner

Anita Raheja

Behind every successful man is a woman who believes in him. Playback singer Abhijeet Sawant’s wife, Shilpa, has supported him since childhood. She helped him with his studies so that he could graduate. She chased him to fill the form for the Indian Idol singing contest and boosted his confidence till he finally emerged the winner in the finale. Later on, she goaded him to gather courage and approach music directors like Shankar Mahadevan.

Abhijeet is the rare man who acknowledges his then-girlfriend and now wife for his professional success and emotional ease. He shares his love story with The Free Press Journal readers.

Q. How and when did you meet your wife, Shilpa?

A. Both of us were staying in the same society, Mahim Shahunagar, so we played games together and chatted with our common group.

Q. When did the friendship turn into love?

A. After the tenth standard, we continued to be part of a group. Since she understood me well and I liked her, I proposed to her, but she said no. So, we stopped talking to each other for almost a year. We had not had a fight, nor was there a heated argument. However, I moved to my uncle’s place for a year and we rarely spoke to each other.

Q. What happened next?

A. Suddenly, one day we met in the society during Diwali. And the meetings began again, but we were still not sure that we wanted to date each other. Only when she also felt that I am the one for her did she ask me for an evening out, and we started dating each other.

Q. Does knowing a person since childhood culminate into marriage more often?

A. Yes, I do believe that a relationship of many years actually blossoms into marriage. She would help me a lot during college days; she would oversee my studies because she felt I must be a graduate at the least.

Q. How long did you date each other?

A. We dated each other for seven years before we got married. We had decided that till I got off to a start in my career, we would not marry. When I topped the Indian Idol contest, we saw everything was going on the right track and decided to take the plunge.

Q. Did you ever break up intermittently during the courtship period?

A. Not exactly a break-up, we had small fights and issues in the relationship. Women can be stubborn (laughs). Jokes apart, Shilpa is very strong-headed, and it would take us some time to resolve the issue. In a relationship, one should not have an ego. One should have a dialogue to resolve an issue.

Q. Who said ‘I love you’ first?

A. I did, because I liked her. The transition from friendship to dating to marriage went very smoothly. We dated for seven years and have been married for 17 years since 2008.

Q. Did you ever serenade her with a song?

A. Very rarely. But we had one song Jab koi baat bigad jaaye … tum dena saath mera, o nawaz that we had dedicated to our relationship.

Q. Who proposed marriage?

A. I proposed marriage first because after Indian Idol, I knew that life was on the right track and we were going to live a good life. My mom and dad went to her house and told her parents that since Abhijeet and Shilpa were already in a relationship, we should get them married. So, it was all organised in a gharelu way. Since Indian Idol gave me a lot of fame and success, her family felt secure in the knowledge that I was proposing, and they agreed. We got married in 2008.

Q. Who is more possessive?

A. Shilpa is more possessive, but she thinks otherwise.

Q. Who is the cleanliness freak?

A. Most of the arguments happen because of cleanliness.

Q. Who is the spendthrift?

A. I think Shilpa is more open-minded when it comes to spending money. She pushes me to spend money and I get very scared of doing so. Love for me is: A give-and-take relationship. We are there for each other and that is love for us.