He maintains a studied silence when probed on how it is going with actress Genelia D’Souza, but actor Riteish Desmukh stresses that he is not planning to get married to her next year.
“I am not getting married anytime soon. Those (the buzz that he is getting married next year) were just rumours and they should be treated like rumours. Till March next year I am shooting, so there cannot be any other plans,” says Riteish who has just returned from London after grueling a shooting schedule with actors Rishi Kapoor, John Abraham, Akshay Kumar and Asin.
The rumours of Riteish going steady with Genelia have been around for more than two years now and the two have not denied anything publicly. Often the couple has been spotted hanging out with each other at events and parties. “It’s something that I don’t want to discuss about. Right now there are a lot of things on my mind other than marriage,” he says.
Very few know that Genelia was Ritesh’s first leading lady in the 2003 film Tujhe Meri Kasam, which tanked at the box office and the two never paired up since. Even though he is cagey about marriage, what about the fact that his family is also apparently keen that he get married soon? “I don’t think there’s any pressure on me to get married. My family knows that I would do things in my own time, so they won’t put any pressure on me for anything like that. At this point of time that (marriage) is not on my priority list,” he adds.
Sensing his extreme discomfort at the mention of Genelia’s name, we ask him about his long-term plans. The son of the former chief minister of Maharastra Vilasrao Desmukh admits that it’s time he did something for Marathi cinema. “I am planning to act in a Marathi movie. It’s been on the cards for a long time now,” he concludes.
