Deepali Singh (DNA; March 15, 2018)

After the massive production, he recently was a part of, Purab Kohli is back in Mumbai. “That was my wedding,” he laughs, referring to his marriage with Lucy Payton, his longtime girlfriend and the mother of his two-year-old daughter. The couple took their wedding vows in Goa in February, and it’s just last week that they drove down to the city, his first road trip with Lucy after they officially became man and wife. Ask him if anything feels different and he says, “It doesn’t, actually. We have been together for long now and our coming together has been quite an interesting journey. The celebration and exchange of vows really cemented the foundation that was already laid a long time ago.”

MEDIUM NO BAR
On the work front, Purab was recently seen in a short film Camouflage, where he played an army officer. He tells us this time he portrayed the character differently as compared to his role in the TV series POW. “In POW, the character was on the edge, whereas here, he has become a cynic. Not too many people get that there’s a reference to the Mahabharata and it’s Krishna and Balram in conversation before the former sets out for the war,” says the actor, who is happy with the response to the film.

While he has done only two fiction shows in his 20-year career — Hip Hip Hurray in 1998 and more recently, POW — Purab says that daily soaps don’t give him satisfaction. He has hosted a travel show earlier and that’s a genre that he would like to explore more often. “I’m inherently a traveller,” says the actor, who’s based in London and Goa, keeps coming down to Mumbai for work commitments. He also finds web shows exciting. Having done two seasons of the critically-acclaimed Sense8, Purab says that web series are the order of the day. “I get at least two calls every month to do a web show,” he says, adding that he recently shot the finale episodes of Sense8, which will be on air soon.

JOURNEY OF AN ACTOR
For somebody who has survived two decades as an actor, and continues to explore different mediums and content, Purab says he’s extremely picky, “I say no to 90 per cent of the projects offered to me. Thankfully, what I've said yes to has worked. I’ve survived for a long time living like this, so I have no complaints. But one would like to have some control,” says the artiste, who has taken to writing.

“I’ve had an idea for a crime-drama for a long time now and I’ve finished the first draft of a feature film. I recently jotted down an idea for a love story as well. As an unfulfilled actor, there are a lot of roles I would have liked to do, but they have not come my way or I’ve not had the opportunity to play them. I think that’s why I write, because I want to tell the story of a character,” concludes the actor, who was last seen on the big screen opposite Sonakshi Sinha in Noor.

Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 19, 2018)

Actor Purab Kohli and longtime girlfriend, yoga instructor Lucy Payton, exchanged vows by the pool, under a Frangipani tree of a heritage bungalow dating back to 1804 in North Goa last weekend. The hush-hush wedding was attended only by family and a few close friends. Among the guests were Purab’s co-stars from his debut TV show, Hip Hip Hurray, Rushad Rana and Shabbir Ahluwalia who was accompanied by wife Kanchi Kaul.

Also spotted was Amrita Puri, Purab’s co-star and on-screen wife from his latest TV show, the Nikkhil Advani directed, P.O.W.: Bandi Yuddh Ke. For the sangeet, Lucy opted for a bright pink sari, while Purab wore a blue suit. The wedding was a mix of traditional Punjabi meets contemporary, with the groom in a sherwani and pagri and the bride in a traditional red lehenga.

After the couple exchanged vows, the band played Punjabi folk and electronica tunes. The couple also had a white wedding-theme party with the actor dashing in a tuxedo and his better half in a gown. Purab told Mirror on Sunday, “The wedding was a two-day affair, we always wanted to keep it private. Both Lucy and I knew that we would get married a long time ago and only wanted blessings from people who love us. We were fortunate to get the blessing of a friend who does some spiritual work with us. That was perhaps the most special moment from our wedding.”

The couple is now planning a honeymoon but is yet to decide where to take off. “We’ve been busy organizing the wedding and inviting people from all over the world that we have not given this much thought. We will be leaving for a vacation in the first week of March and now just need to fix the location,” he said. The couple has been in a live-in relationship for a while. Speaking to Mirror earlier (December 5, 2015) Purab had said, “ We will get married when the time is right and our little angel at the altar with us.” Their daughter Inaya was born in 2016.

The couple reportedly had a court marriage in 2016 but wanted to have a proper celebration in the presence of loved ones. In April 2016, the 38-year-old actor had bought his dream holiday home in Goa, revealing that ever since his father, Harsh Kohli, filmed Love in Goa there, in 1981, summer vacations were usually spent on the beach. Purab first purchased a small apartment in Candolim in 2001 before moving to a nicer flat in Arpora. The bungalow was the perfect getaway.