‘I thought she was Lara Dutta’: Akshai Varde on first meeting with wife Sameera Reddy; she recalls ‘almost dumping’ him

Recounting how they first met in a conversation with Hauterfly, Sameera revealed she first spotted Akshai during promotions for her film Tezz.

“There was this big bike that came in for the shoot, and Akshai was on it,” she recalled.

Akshai had arrived thinking he would be meeting Lara Dutta.

“Someone told me there’s this actress, Sameera Reddy.

In my head, I was picturing Lara Dutta,” he admitted.

While Akshai stayed focused on ensuring the borrowed bike didn’t get damaged, Sameera found herself instantly smitten.

“I was like, wow, he’s really hot.

I started behaving like a teenage girl trying to impress him,” she said.

After the shoot was over, Akshai didn’t ask for her number, assuming a Bollywood actress was out of his league, so Sameera made sure he got her number.

“I wasn’t going to ask for her number.

I’m like, Bollywood actress, no way.

I’m not getting into this, you know.

Then she comes up and says, oh, you know what, this bike’s really fancy.

And I have a lot of friends in Bollywood.

And she dropped some names and all.

They would all be interested in bikes like this.

So, you should get my number.

So I took out my phone and I said, okay, give me your number.

So, promptly she has given me her number.

Yeah, but that was how we met.”
“That’s how it started,” Akshai said.

“We went on a date, and the story began.”
Their relationship didn’t progress at the same pace for both.

Sameera admitted she grew impatient waiting for clarity.

“ I was getting impatient.

I’d be like, man, what is going on?

Because every month, I’d be like, man, this guy definitely is not going to marry me.

I’m wasting my time.”
Akshai, on the other hand, was cautious.

“ I took my time to understand whether, you know, beyond all the glamour and, fame whether there is a real person.

So, that’s why I took my time.

I think that’s when I realised that, yeah, she’s the one,” he explained.

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On the eve of her birthday in December 2013, Sameera found herself spiralling, upset that Akshai hadn’t planned anything and seemingly gone quiet.

“My birthday was coming up.

It was 2013.

And I was angry.

Because I’m like, this guy had gone quiet.

We were dating for three years… three years.

And I was like, man, I’m 36 years old.

And I was like, if this guy is just not going to do anything, I’m not sticking around.

I’m done,” she said
She recalled, describing how she ended up crying alone after a few glasses of wine.

“And I drank the wine.

And I got fully fried.

And I remember mascara was running.

And I was crying.

And I locked myself in the bathroom and all.

I was ready to slap him.

I was like, let it come.

I’m going to break up with him.”
Meanwhile, Akshai had been planning a surprise proposal all along.

He walked in with family members and a box — from which a balloon carrying a ring emerged.

“It went from anger to confusion to shock to full crying,” Sameera said.

Akshai was amused at her reaction, “She was upset before, upset after… and I’m just thinking, what just happened?”
After consulting an astrologer, Sameera realised an auspicious date was just days away.

“We decided on January 8 to get married on January 21,” she said.

With barely any time to prepare, the couple put together a simple yet beautiful ceremony on the terrace of their building, attended by just 100 close friends and family members.

“Everybody who was there was like a close person in our lives.

It was the perfect setting,” Akshai recalled.

Their first fight, right after the wedding
Akshai, caught completely off guard by flashing cameras and a crowd, remembered it as their “first fight after marriage”.

“I couldn’t even smile,” he admitted.

Sameera Reddy and Akshai Varde tied the knot on January 21, 2014.

The couple are parents to two children – son Hans, born in 2015, and daughter Nyra, born in 2019.

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