Mouni Roy marries Dubai businessman Suraj Nambiar in South Indian ceremony

The Bollywood actress and the entrepreneur tied the knot in Goa with close friends and family members in attendance

Bollywood actress Mouni Roy married Suraj Nambiar, a businessman from Dubai, in a traditional South Indian ceremony in Goa. Photo: Instagram/nambiar13

Bollywood actress Mouni Roy married businessman Suraj Nambiar, who lives in the UAE, in a traditional South Indian ceremony at a Goa resort.

The couple, who met in Dubai, brought elements of their respective cultures to the ceremony on Thursday. Roy, who is from West Bengal, wore a traditional Bengali red-and-white bridal sari. Meanwhile, Nambiar, who is a Malayali from Bengaluru, wore a gold kurta paired with a silk mundu, the sarong-style menswear popular in South India.

Pictures from the wedding show the smiling couple in their traditional attire surrounded by family and friends. In one picture, Nambiar is seen putting a traditional necklace around Roy's neck as guests shower the couple with flowers.

"Married my best friend and the love of my life. Feel like the luckiest man alive," Nambiar posted on Instagram along with a series of photos.

Television personality and actress Mandira Bedi, a close friend of Roy's, also shared photos from the ceremony.

"Ecstatic to be with and thrilled for my favourite people Mr and Mrs Nambiar. Beautiful ceremony! I love you @imouniroy @nambiar13," she posted.

Arjun Bijlani, a television actor who has appeared in shows with Roy, captioned his photo "Mr and Mrs Nambiar!!".

The wedding ceremony on Thursday was held on the second day of festivities at the Hilton Goa Resort in Candolim, attended by a number of Indian TV personalities and family members. Roy and Nambiar were initially supposed to get married in Dubai, but moved the venue to be closer to family. However, the celebrations are said to be an intimate affair as gatherings remain restricted across India, amid rising coronavirus cases.

On Wednesday, the couple's friends posted photos and videos on social media from the mehendi ceremony, a pre-wedding ritual where henna is applied on the bride's hands and feet, and on the hands of the female members of the bride and groom's families. Bride-to-be Roy was dressed in a yellow lehenga with flowing tassels, by designer Payal Singhal.

The couple was filmed dancing to a number of Bollywood numbers, including the AR Rahman song Mehendi Hai Rachnewali, from the 2001 film Zubeidaa.

Bedi also shared photos from the mehendi ceremony.

"Mon, Suraj... and so it all begins. I love you both, more than you know," Bedi, a close friend of Roy's, posted.

"Just so happy !! God bless u @imouniroy," Bijlani wrote, along with pictures from the pre-wedding ceremony.

Roy, who cut her teeth as a television actress, made her debut in 2007 in the long-running show Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. She soon became one of the highest-paid TV stars with shows such as Devon Ke Dev... Mahadev and Naagin.

Her big-screen debut, in the Bollywood hit Gold in 2018, received wide praise. She has since appeared in a number of Bollywood films, and will soon be seen in the long-awaited fantasy film Bhahmastra, scheduled to be released in September.

Who is Suraj Nambiar?

Not a lot is known about Roy's husband, except that he was born in Bengaluru and that he's a businessman and investment banker who lives in Dubai, according to India Today.

Nambiar describes himself as an "entrepreneur" in his Instagram profile where he often posts about travel and adventure. He's believed to have met Roy in Dubai, and while the couple never made their relationship public, they were spotted together at parties and on holidays.

On Wednesday, Roy posted a photo of herself with a smiling Nambiar with the caption "Everything", her first public acknowledgement of their relationship.

The actress, who often posts pictures of her trips to Dubai, reportedly met Nambiar's parents in March last year at the home of her friend Bedi. In an interview with The National in January 2021, she said she'd spent many months in Dubai during the period of Covid-19 restrictions in 2020.

"The moment they opened the theatres here, I was one of the first to go and watch Tenet," Roy said. "Just that feeling of sitting in a theatre and watching that screen filled me with such happiness. I have been a film lover since I was a child, so I am eagerly waiting for everything to go back to the way it used to be."

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