The Married Woman: Meet The Characters Of This First-Of-A-Kind Show About Two Women In Love

ZEE5 has dropped the official teaser of the show Married Woman. The ZEE5 original series is a love story of two women who find each other despite political and societal boundaries. We will get to see Astha who is tired of her monotonous life and doesn’t feel loved at home with her husband. She falls in love with Peeplika and what comes next is the journey of their relationship and the hurdles they face to be with each other. Take a look at the characters of The Married Woman.

Cast and character of the Married Woman

Ridhi Dogra as Astha

Television actor Ridhi Dogra will be seen playing the lead role of Astha Kalra who is an educated middle-class married woman. She is a conformist and according to her having a normal life with husband and children is the only appropriate thing to do. She is the quintessential ‘bahu’ who adjusts to everyone’s needs and in the process forgets to look after herself. She finds comfort in Peeplika and feels satisfied with her. She starts feeling loved as Peeplika looks at her like no one does.

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Also Read | Ridhi Dogra Used To Be Poo From Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham In School, Reveals Maniesh Paul

Monika Dogra as Peeplika

Actor and singer Monika Dogra is known for her roles in Rock On!! and Dhobi Ghat. She will be seen playing the role of Peeplika. Peeplika is Aijaz’s wife who then becomes Astha’s partner. She is a gorgeous, confident woman who has a voice of her own. She is a painter and loves painting bodies of women. She is brought up by a strict mother in Delhi but decides to get married to a Muslim man who will not bind her to a convention. She meets Astha after a tragic event and Astha tries to bring her out of it.

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Also Read | The Married Woman Teaser: Ridhi And Monica Dogra’s Unconventional Love Story Will Be A Treat To Watch This Women’s Day

Suhas Ahuja as Hemant

Hemant Kalra is Astha’s husband who is a businessman who deals with sanitary ware. The role of Hemant is played by Suhas Ahuja who was seen in Talaash and Katti Batti. He wishes to be one of the most successful businessmen in the world. He is a happy man with two children and a wife. His way of showing love is by taking care of the financial needs of the family. He doesn’t mind Astha working for the family but he doesn’t want her career to affect her family’s routine. He starts getting insecure when Astha starts getting close to Aijaz and Peeplika and wants to maintain his family life. However, he realises this late and finds it difficult to keep his family intact.

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Imaad as Aijaz

Imaad is seen playing the role of Aijaz who is a theatre director at Astha’s school. He is seen as an effortless charmer with long curly hair and intense eyes. He is sensitive and empathic towards people which make them fall in love with him. He is a philosophical man who loves Sufi music. He does not discriminate people on the basis of their race, caste or their colour. He is married to Peeplika, a Bengali bisexual woman. He loves Peeplika and is aware of Astha’s feelings for him. However, he is a one-woman man bought up in a good family and does not have any wrong intentions for Astha. Imaad Shah plays the role of Aijaz in the show.

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Nadira Babbar as Kalpana Kalra – Astha’s Mother-in-law/Hemant’s Mother

She is a stern, classy looking Punjabi woman. She is a traditional woman when it comes to household and values. She believes that she and her husband are very modern, for letting their daughter-in-law work. They do not really pay attention to the political unrest unless it is right in front of them. They are the kind of people who just believe what they hear on the news.

 

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 Rahul Vohra as Jagdish Kalra – Astha’s Father-in-law/Hemant’s Father 

Hemant’s Father is a stern man. Despite his education, he still has very traditional, patriarchal personality traits. He patronizes Aastha, who however doesn’t really say much. As he grows older, he becomes increasingly religious and conscious of Hindu pride and feels the need to safeguard it. His granddaughter’s marriage to a Muslim that he is forced to accept, acts as a trigger to increasing his paranoia.

Ayesha Raza as Babbo/ Babita Mathur

A Punjabi NRI, she’s Aastha’s sister-in-law and Timsi’s mum. She is a bit loud. She comes off as obnoxious and brash. She isn’t an antagonistic character, however along with Hemant and his parents, she overlooks Astha and doesn’t really give her much importance. An NRI, she believes things are better abroad. Well-meaning, she’s nevertheless interfering and her appreciation of Aastha’s worth comes only late in the series.

Samridhi Dewan as Timsi Mathur 

Hemant’s niece,  Timsi is a young, smart, and happy-go-lucky girl. She doesn’t see the world from a tainted lens and is not prejudiced like her family. She’s been sent from the US to live with Hemant’s family during her graduation. She is brave and doesn’t fear retribution for her choices. She falls in love with a man who she knows her family won’t approve of and she still ends up marrying him.

Nabeel Ahmed as Mudassar 

The boy Timsi wants to marry. Muslim, from a conservative family he seems to take the space of the liberal Muslim that Aijaz (an idol figure for theatre, literary arts, and change) has vacated. Except you see the impact of increasing Hindu radicalisation on him. As his religion and way of life is threatened and belittled, Aijaz who was never strictly religious starts assuming the outward markers of his faith in an attempt to assert his identity. Eventually, he becomes radicalised and is prepared to die and kill for his faith, but when he realises he stands to lose his family he has a change of heart.

Sangeeta Balachandran as Sunita Verma (Astha’s Mother) 

A very traditional and conservative Indian mother. She’s lived the hardships of being a widow in Indian society. Blindfolded by the duties and expectations of a married woman in a patriarchal society, her idea of her daughter’s wellbeing and happiness only revolves around a successful marriage. She maintains a constant pressure on her daughter to be the perfect wife and daughter in law to lead a peaceful life. A woman who otherwise wouldn’t have been submissive to Astha’s in-laws if she had male support.

 

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Divya Seth as Indira Devdutt Paul (Peeplika’s Mother) 

A very elegant, sophisticated, and stylish Bengali woman. Thinks she is open to experiences and has contemporary beliefs, unlike the regular Indian mothers. Always has opinions to shed on world affairs but obstinate when it comes to her daughter’s sexuality. Someone who would usually spend her time, relaxing and sipping away vintage wine, listening to beautiful classic ghazals, eating fine cuisines, leading a life on her own terms but can’t seem to accept her daughter and her life choices. She’s a cold woman and is always bitter and condemns everything she does be it her sexuality or the inter-religious love marriage. Her deep-rooted hatred for her own daughter also stems from the fact that she got her husband (daughter’s stepfather) behind the bars for sexual assault.

 

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